The Bats announce new album, share first single, "Antlers"

NZ indie-pop legends The Bats have announced a new album, The Deep Set (out January 27 on Flying Nun), and shared the first single "Antlers" .

The band also announced that they will perform The Deep Set in full as a world premiere for Sydney Festival on January 29, accompanied by a string section, as well as launching the album in Melbourne the day before at Northcote Social Club on January 28. 

Listen to “Antlers”, the first single from The Deep Set (out tomorrow on digital release via Flying Nun) here.

With the title conveying the long established and firmly embedded, it’s notable that it’s 30 years since The Bats began recording their debut album in the living room studio of a friend of a friend in Glasgow. This time around they recorded in The Sitting Room, the of Ben Edwardin Lyttelton, New Zealand.

With Edward's help, The Deep Set continues The Bats’ 21st century resurgence. The chords still chug, the guitars chime, ring, and jangle, the melodies are clear and memorable, the rhythm section is unstoppable. But the band mines the darker, deeper sound that 2011’s Free All the Monsters revealed.

As always the key to The Bats is the emotion that their (seemingly) simple songs carry. They continue to mine that Mainland melancholy; the kind that somehow never risks being depressing.