Ahead of the relese of their new album Contempt, UK band Bad Breeding, have shared new single “Liberty.” Contempt drops on June 14th via One Little Independent Records in UK/EU and Iron Lung Records in the US. Contempt was recorded and produced at Chapel Studios by Ben Greenberg, an engineer from Brooklyn, one half of Industrial outfit Uniform and ex-member of The Men. He’s worked on a number of bands (The Chisel, Metz, cumgirl8, Drab Majesty) and scores, including multiple for A24 as well as on Johann Johansson’s Mandy soundtrack.

“Liberty” follows “Human Capital” which mercilessly attacked Conservative meritocracy and the exploitative forces of late capitalism. ‘Contempt’ ups the ante yet again and explores the continued effects that austerity has had on the working public and specifically capital’s destruction of the planet and its inhabitants. It’s released with multiple essays in an accompanying zine, one that follows environmental and humanitarian journalist Aidan Frere-Smith and another that tells the story of a homelessness crisis in a city full of unused housing. Utilizing a mix of propulsive rhythm and furious, explosive guitars to maximum effect, Bad Breeding have weaponised their anger in the fight for survival; “Because these days are ours to take / Seize them with union, love and rage”.

Christopher Dodd explains “Capital and its bourgeois foot soldiers hold nothing but contempt for working people and it’s in that contempt we can find solidarity with one another. Whatever story gets sold and packaged, contempt guides every move of the capitalist class. We see it every day – unspeakable destruction from war and government-sponsored genocide, exploitation of workers and the very gutting of the planet we live on. Only when we realise and utilise the utter contempt held for us can we reach a level of class consciousness that will provide an adequate challenge to capital”.

“Liberty” discusses the con-trick of liberalism and how it has served as a facilitator of western imperialist expansion, cloaked under the pretence of bringing liberation and freedom to maldeveloped parts of the world. Dodd tells us “Grotesque warmongering and profiteering sees the ruling classes continuously rework and reframe the ways in which they justify the barbarity of our world, most notably through their supposed notions of liberty that provide a framework for imperialism. As always, this comes at the expense of working people across the planet, who become nothing but fodder in the relentless meat grinder of the military industrial complex and its prevailing devastation. Atrocity and disdain for human life have remained hallmarks in the pursuit of their kind of freedom, one driven by greed, power and parasitical conquest”.

The album’s artwork comes courtesy of seminal photomontage artist and prominent anti-war campaigner Peter Kennard, who has provided the cover art for ‘Contempt’ alongside a selection of images in the album’s zine and inserts. Described by the late John Pilger as ranking among the most important of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, Kennard’s art holds a mirror to the wars waged against humanity, creating challenging works that have informed the visual culture of conflict and crisis in modern history.

Bad Breeding
Contempt
Track listing
One Little Independent

Temple of Victory
Survival
Devotion
Liberty
Discipline
Retribution
Gilded Cage / Sanctuary
Vacant Paradise
Idolatry
Contempt

Bad Breeding 2024 Tour Dates

June 14th – Santa Maria de Lamas, PT – Basquieral Festival
June 19th – Brighton, UK – Green Door Store
June 20th – Nottingham, UK – The Angel
June 21st – London, UK – Moth Club
June 22nd – Plymouth, UK – The Nightmare Continues
June 23rd – Bristol, UK – Exchange

Pre-order Contempt by Bad Breeding HERE