SCALPING and Grove share “Remain In Stasis,” a synth-punk reverie
SCALPING’s debut album Void drops April 29 on Houndstooth.
Photo by Jamie Harding.
SCALPING have been releasing sinister instrumental tracks at a slow trickle since 2019. Last month, the Bristol synth-punk quartet announced their debut album, Void, due out April 29 via Houndstooth, and shared it's lead single, "Flashforward." They've now dropped the record's seond offering, "Remain In Stasis," featuring fellow Bristolian Grove.
The new song is a pulsing, darkly danceable reverie and a meditation on memory itself. SCALPING lay down a filthy track full of trunk-rumbling low end and screeching guitar, and Grove delivers matches their energy with a fiery vocal, mostly monotone but somehow still dynamic, and all-the-more jarring when it mutates into a primal shout.
"It's very exciting to share our first music with vocals," SCALPING write. "This was our first time collaborating musically with someone outside of the band, and working with Grove was amazing. The energy they brought to the process and the way they evolved the song was incredibly refreshing; especially after working on our music remotely through various lockdowns for the best part of two years. Although 'Remain in Stasis' is musically the most straightforward track on the album, it took us the longest to finish. We finished the mix while in the van on the way to London to master the album."
"Me and SCALPING met at Mickey Zogg's in Bristol since our Noods radio shows are one after the other," Grove continues. "I've admired their artistry for [some] time and was gassed to be asked to work on a tune together. After a few pints and good conversation on the concept of memory, we got to work warping and playing with their track demo. I landed on lyrically exploring the duality of memory. It has the power to be beautiful/terrifying, reminiscent/traumatising, and all the shades of mundane in between. This is a cathartic exercise of that.”
"Remain In Stasis" comes with a schizophrenic video directed by Red Tubby, replete with demented datamoshing, smoke, lasers, and strobes. Watch it below.