This month sees the return of Slow Down Molasses with a brand new single, ‘Street Haunting’, ahead of album Minor Deaths this autumn. Inspired by the Virginia Woolf essay of the same name, the track continues to develop the style that marks the outfit, using visceral sounds to explore sophisticated themes. “The song ruminates on the casual, but oft-underappreciated beauty of the urban environment and the predictability of a person’s daily tasks,” frontman Tyler McShane explains. “A place sometimes overflowing with creative energy, but where it’s often necessary to remind oneself of the casual brilliance of one’s peers and the places we typically tend to haunt.”

But Woolf haunted London, walking the streets of Westminster, Trafalgar Square and Regent’s Park. Slow Down Molasses position themselves within less renowned Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The song therefore serves something of a dual purpose, finding that the ‘rest’ of which Woolf speaks is still present in the smaller urban spaces, while also exploring the strange isolation inherent in places so far removed from traditional centres of culture. This is captured in a taut, twitchy sound, McShane’s vocals fighting against growing disorder as peals of feedback threaten to unhinge the track. Though just as it rises to breaking point, the tense rhythm wins out. Just another flash of unease on the ever-spinning world.

A street haunted that’s the missing link for us
Built of bricks and the failing state of man
Tells the story of a secret history of
Something new. Something that won’t change at all.

Let me hide as I walk right past it all
A faded ghost in this new dialectic’s drone
I step aside of the reasons that got you there
Someone lost, or someone set to lose their way

Artwork by Brandi Strauss, layout by Chrix Morix

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All we have in way of a preview so far is this video trailer, though the sample is more than enough to suggest that Lucky’s brand of warm folk and evocative songwriting is sounding as good as ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLDRNxn-oAo

To help along physical pressings of the album, Zachary Lucky has set up a Pledge Music page with a variety of pay scales and prizes for those who donate. Not only do all pre-orders come with an early download of the full record, but depending on how much you have to spend you could also grab yourself a personalised postcard, signed record, test press vinyl, a photo book, acoustic house show and even a (possibly awkward) Skype call with Lucky himself.

Everywhere A Man Can Be will be released on the 7th October via Wroxton Recordings, and you can support the pre-order campaign right now on Pledge Music. Also, be sure to delve into the Zachary Lucky back-catalogue on Bandcamp.

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The new album is due out in the new year but ANTI- have released a new song to keep you occupied in the meantime. ‘Jenny Come Home’ is something of a departure from his previous records, employing warmer, more upbeat sound to produce a jaunty, 70s-flavoured blend of folk and rock. The lyrics however are at odds with the buoyant tone, a story of infidelity unearthed, told from the perspective of the guilty party.

“You got back home about a quarter to four
and when you opened the door
you saw a pair of shoes you’d never seen before.
You came upstairs and we were scrambled so
she tried to make for the door.
I swear you packed all your things and were gone before she.
Jenny come home to me”

You can pick up The Bearer of Bad News and other past releases on the Andy Shaf Bandcamp, if you missed them the first time around. Otherwise keep your ears to the ground for more news on the new record.

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