CHIMING with crisp twelve-strings, the like of which you last encountered being toted by a McGuinn or a Buck, but also possessed of a thigh-slappin’ Brit-glam silvered groove, Roxy sax raunch, The Fernweh are spanning continents and decades and whirring it all up on their new single, “The Pike” – the very first stomper to emerge from their second album, TORSCHLUSSPANIK! which, they tell us, will be hitting the shelves at the end of October.
We’re told: “They decided to plug in rather than wig out for album number two”; and scientists have observed that that electric energy stirs the soul and induces an involuntary need to high-clap to the side with swagger last noted in the populous when Suede came roaring out of the blocks.
They’ve been examining the evidence, and taken in tandem with January’s baroque-psych banger, “The Wounds Of Love”, more on which here, the finest minds have noted that the Cold War-era escapism of 2018’s self-titled debut album, although very much present in tests, now comes blended with a neon-lit retro-futurism.
Co-songwriter and lyricist Ned Crowther says of the new song: “The guitar riff sparkled like a fish and the fish quickly became a pike, a kind of monster or demon of rural folklore.
“It was always one of those urban myths growing up swimming in rivers: ‘Dean Jenkins knows someone who had his finger bitten off by a pike!’. So, when we look at a pike we really do look into our own fears and meet our match.
“They inspire an awe that goes beyond that so that they become like ancient mythological beasts with almost supernatural powers.”
Talking powers from beyond: the band formed when Ned, Jamie Backhouse and Austin Murphy, at the time a trio of session men, working behind the scenes on others’ records and unloved, made a pact to one day make the record they actually wanted to make – and wanted to hear. And that deal was struck sat overlooking Glastonbury, the Isle of Avalon of Arthurian lore.
The Fernweh’s TORSCHLUSSPANIK! will be released by Winterlude Records on Friday, October 29th – keep your eyes on the Bandcamp skies for more details.
Connect with The Fernweh elsewhere on the web at Bandcamp, on Twitter and on Instagram.
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