Latest stars from the burgeoning Brixton Windmill scene Black Country, New Road release their much-anticipated debut album For the First Time on Ninja Tune.
Recorded live over a six-day period in March with producer Andy Savours (My Bloody Valentine), the album is the perfect capturing of a new band and all the energy, ferocity and explosive charge that comes with that whilst also clearly the work of a group who have no interest in repetition, one-note approaches or letting creative stagnation set in.
For the First Time is a sonic time capsule that somehow manages to bottle the past, the present and the future.
The album reflects where the band were as a unit after a year of heavy touring. This was a place where deft, free-flowing and intuitive playing melded with tightly coiled eruptive moments. “We wanted it to sound exactly how we love to sound live,” says saxophonist Lewis Evans. “This is basically representative of our first 18 months”, continues frontman Isaac Wood. Indeed the band found they had to stop themselves running too far ahead in order to document this album in a way that felt as truthful as possible. “We see this as being a stop in the road” explains Isaac. “I've always been interested in a really honest portrayal of what a band is and what they've been working on. I think it's really nice if people can see an artist like: this was them in the early days, this was their next phase and that they're quite clear and honest about genuine progression as people and musicians”.