17 July 2023 - 0 Comments

South Locust – it’s an eerie street sign half glimpsed at night somewhere in North Texas, an apocalyptic marker. But it also suggests other images and meanings; what's a locust doing down here at the bottom of the world, in Aotearoa?

South Locust is also the second album from Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau post punk psych trio Swallow the Rat, due for release Friday 1 September.

Emerging post-pandemic as a reinvigorated three piece, Swallow the Rat (guitarist Brian Purington, drummer/vocalist Hayden Fritchley, bassist/vocalist Stephen Horsley) return with a new dual vocal attack where voices now soar, growl or reassure, while the stripped down format provides for more space and dynamics.

Lyrically, the floodgates have opened too. Looking over their shoulder, the band survey the legacy of colonialism, neoliberalism and the internet, as well as broken friendships, and things torn apart as if by a locust cloud.

The album's lead single Terra Nullius is out this Friday 21 July, accompanied by a mind-blowing video (and we don't say that lightly).

Terra Nullius is a song in two parts, exploring the repercussions of white privilege in two different scenarios. The song initially confronts the part played by settlers in dishonest land deals with Māori in Aotearoa, before moving to the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, where 39 people died, and 35 square blocks of the Greenwood neighbourhood were destroyed.

Pre-save Terra Nullius here

Recorded with acclaimed engineer Nick Abbott (Foals, Die! Die! Die!), mixed remotely in Los Angeles by Sonny Diperri (Protomartyr, Diiv, Animal Collective), and mastered in Chicago by Carl Saff (Sonic Youth), South Locust will be out on September 1st via US label Shifting Sounds.

South Locust follows from last year’s 7” teaser Other Rooms (featuring Yuko Miyoshi of Memory Foam).

The album is available for pre-order in a very limited edition run of solid white 12" vinyl. The moment the album is released you’ll also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Pre-order your copy here.

Swallow the Rat has announced Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand tour dates for August and September:

Aotearoa New Zealand Tour

Saturday 8 September Wine Cellar Auckland
Friday 15 September Yot Club Raglan
Saturday 16 September Voodoo Lounge Tauranga
Friday 22 September Last Place Hamilton
Saturday 23 September Common Room Hastings

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