Black Country, New Road unveil sci-fi-inspired video for Concorde – watch
The London band's second record is out next month
By Joe Goggins
Black Country, New Road have unveiled an ambitious, science fiction-inspired video for their latest single, ‘Concorde’.
The track its taken from their forthcoming second full-length, ‘Ants from Up There’, which is due on February 4th via Ninja Tune. A close collaboration with the London-based production company Caviar, the ‘Concorde’ clip is directed by Maxim Kelly, who has previously worked with Shame and Tiña. You can watch the video below.
Discussing the video and its concept, Kelly said: “On the surface, the concept was straightforward, a walking video: An Ant from “up there”, sings Concorde. But, for a band who namecheck everyone from Scott Walker to Kanye West, and the pronounced mix of genres in their music, it felt right to take an analogous approach with the visuals. Throw as many references together as possible and see if we, too, could get it all to hold together as a piece.”
“We took the 6 minute+ runtime as an asset,” Kelly continued. “It gave us the time needed to weave as much as possible into the film. A walking video in parts, but also with a narrative running through. We combined miniatures with VFX, and flanked the film with archival footage.”
‘Concorde’ is the third single to be released so far from ‘Ants from Up There’, after ‘Bread Song’ and ‘Chaos Space Marine’. It’s a sprawling exercise in the kind of maximalism that made the London band’s debut LP, the Mercury-nominated ‘For the First Time’, one of 2020’s finest records, flitting thrillingly between quiet introspection and soaring atmosphere.
‘Ants from Up There’ was recorded on the Isle of Wight at Chale Abbey Studios, with Sergio Maschetzko returning on engineering duties. At the time of its announcement, bassist Tyler Hyde said: “we were just so hyped the whole time. It was such a pleasure to make. I’ve kind of accepted that this might be the best thing that I’m ever part of for the rest of my life. And that’s fine.”
After a one-off show at Camden’s Roundhouse next month, the band will play their biggest UK tour to date in support of ‘Ants from Up There’ in April – the full dates are below.
Black Country, New Road, February 2022:
8 – London, Roundhouse
April 2022:
6 – Sheffield, Foundry
7 – Oxford, O2 Academy
9 – Edinburgh, Liquid Room
10 – Belfast, The Empire
13 – Manchester, Albert Hall
14 – Nottingham, Rock City
16 – Brighton, Concorde 2
17 – Bristol, O2 Academy