31 January 2025 - 0 Comments

The Bemsha Swing are back after nearly a decade, and would like to share with you Kintsugi Kids, the second single from their forthcoming album, The Expectation and Experience of Dissonance.

About Kintsugi Kids: "It’s fucking great having friends. The kind of friends where time and distance don’t matter at all, where you can stand in the sum of your broken state and have them cement the pieces back together with solid gold. Don’t let capital force your circle to be used as a weapon against you, maintain your friendships away from employment.” - Shane Warbrooke, The Bemsha Swing

"Kintsugi — which means “join with gold” — is the Japanese art of repairing broken objects, often ceramic pottery or glass. Traditionally, gold lacquer is used to piece shards together again, creating a more beautiful object through the acts of breaking and repair. Kintsugi encourages us to fix rather than discard, thus placing a higher value on the objects we bring into our lives." - KonMarie.com: Beauty in broken things

In their previous life, The Bemsha Swing carved a riotous path through Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland's nights, played shows with Wire, Holy Fuck, and Czech prog legends Uszme Doma, then immediately sold out as hard as possible in the pursuit of free shoes and energy drinks.

Named after a Thelonious Monk song, the band's influences include Gang of Four, Sonic Youth, Wire, Straitjacket Fits, Bailterspace, Nation Of Ulysses, and King Crimson. Genre references span Post Punk, Noise Rock, Irresponsibly Fast Shoegaze and Prog Punk.

The Bemsha Swing's Initial run was from 2009-2015, with the lineup of Shane Warbrooke, Andrew Watt, Artie, and The Doctor (Zoom RT123 and Boss DR202 drum machines respectively).

Currently the band lineup is Shane Warbrooke, Brian Purington (Swallow The Rat), and the ghosts of drum machines Artie and The Doctor, who have been imprisoned in a digital hell of their own making (Warbrooke sampled them into a modern sampler because they are too beaten up to tour with).

The Bemsha Swing's debut album, Against Friends and Lovers, was released on Muzai Records in 2013. Twelve years later, their second album The Expectation and Experience of Dissonance is due for release this April.

The first single from the new album was Empty Leather, which sat at #3 on the 95bFM Top Ten for several weeks. During this time, The Bemsha Swing have played several well-received Auckland shows, including the sold out 1:12 fest at Whammy.

Kintsugi Kids on Bandcamp

Kintsugi Kids on Spotify

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