One of the nation’s most inventive bands Robocobra Quartet announced the follow up to 2016’s Northern Ireland Music Prize nominated ‘Music For All Occasions’ mere weeks ago. They’ve now returned with a second helping from their second album, with new track ‘You’ll Wade’.
The band’s debut was a succinct shock of songwriter Chris Ryan’s conversations and musings set to their distinct mix of styles. ‘You’ll Wade’, along with the fantastically and extensively titled ‘I Shouldn’t Have Watched The Film What Lies Beneath (When I Was Twelve)’ takes them further along an exciting trajectory.
Where ‘I Shouldn’t Have Watched…’ pounds through its three and a half minutes, ‘You’ll Wade’ and its dominating, arpeggiating bass and the band’s now traditional statements of woodwind are joined by piano and strings. As the volume dies away to the song’s quieter second half, vocalist Chris Ryan’s repeats pessimistic exclamations of ‘everything is old news’. A lively and lush track, the band continue to assert their forward thinking sound through jazz and hardcore, enlivening Chris Ryan’s cutting vocals.
As Chris Ryan explains: “During writing it was clear that You’ll Wade was meant to have a massive ambience shift half way through the song. To get this we recorded both halves of the song separately with a different sounding drum kit and even a different bass & sax player from our family of collaborators, months.”
The band’s second album ‘Plays Hard To Get’ is set for release on 25th May, with the band playing a string of tour dates in the UK and Europe in May and June.
