flies+flies debut new video for “The Sea”

flies+flies debut new video for "The Sea"
Photo by Nick Roberts+Marko Righo)

London based trio flies+flies make music using electronics, vox/guitar and cello. Their brooding, claustrophobic sound occupies a sound, that encompassing Jeff Buckley’s reflective late-night hymnals, the apocalyptic transmissions of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and the spare, sputtering 808 patterns of early Hessle Audio records. It’s no surprise that Andrew Weatherall was one of the first people to pick up on flies+flies, regularly including them in his mixes.

“The band came together from disparate musical backgrounds – Jake Williams (electronics), a former member of Red Snapper and Toob, and currently also one half of Petwo Evans (renowned afro-influenced project that counts Ben UFO and Laurent Garnier as fans) remembers seeing Dan Griffis sing for the first time in Berlin and being “blown away”. Griffis’ voice is disarmingly clear and piercing, a falsetto full of richness and menace. The trio are completed by Martin Kingston, a friend of Williams from their time at Goldsmiths College, whose background is in the neo-classical and folk scenes)”

Title track Milk & Peppers is sinister, full of impending doom and anxiety. Hypnotic shifts in basslines juxtaposed effortlessly with Griffis’ seductive and hyper-sexualized croon. The Sea, inspired by the housing crisis, with its submerged guitars, sparse 808 toms and minimal cello provide a haunting and atmospheric backdrop to the vocals. While Wire approved Dane Law’s remix of The Sea brings a new dimension, jittery and uneasy, a lyrical break but no relief from the sense of longing and melancholy.

flies+flies
Track-listing
digital and vinyl release:

A
Milk & Peppers
The Noise (vinyl only)
B
The Sea (Dane Law remix)
The Sea

Watch flies+Flies’ new video, “The Sea” directed by Nick Roberts.

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