Wax Chattels have announced, their forthcoming release Clot, will drop on September 25 via Captured Tracks/Flying Nun. Along with the announcement the band shares the first single “No Ties.” Amanda Cheng (bass/vocals), who is Hoklo Taiwanese, expresses in the melodic single the experience of being a first generation immigrant and not having a personal relationship with extended family. The song touches on cultural differences and the parental sacrifice of careers and support systems to provide a “better” future for their children.

Amanda Cheng on “No Ties” – Being a first generation immigrant, I’ve never had a personal connection with my extended family. There’s an incomparable loneliness rooted in this — I think the weight of parental sacrifice and cultural estrangement is difficult for other Kiwis to understand. “No Ties” comes from these frustrations, and the helpless desperation of watching the present-day political confrontations in my other, would-have-been, home.

Clot was recorded by James Goldsmith (Aldous Harding, Mermaidens). Wax Chattels maintained the use of only the barest of ingredients — bass guitar, keyboard, and a two-piece drum kit — but the group spent more time experimenting with and finding new sounds. They wanted to maintain the same live element as in their debut, but, this time, heavier — for which they enlisted the help of mixing engineer, and fellow noise-maker, Ben Greenberg (Uniform, Destruction Unit, The Men). A marked step-up, this new record keeps the visceral energy of the debut, only this time they dig deeper into cathartic noise. Clot’s inspiration — or, rather, frustration — came from the doomy, gloomy corners of Auckland’s underbelly, and the theme of confrontation is central.