Northern Irish artist Nick Carlisle shares new Spiralling video for new album Sailors On The Roiling Sea

 
Nick Carlisle – Photo by Aubrey Simpson 6
Music
 

Northern Irish artist & lynchpin of the UK DIY music scene Nick Carlisle (Bamboo, Lean Logic, releases on Upset The Rhythm, Gob Nation & O Genesis) presents new solo album of scintillating art rock Sailors On The Roiling Sea, led by a mesmeric new video for second single Spiralling.

Northern Irish artist Nick Carlisle has been an understated but prolific presence in the UK DIY music scene for a number of years, making music with Peepholes, Bamboo, Katy & Nick & Lean Logic and appearing on labels including Upset The Rhythm, Gob Nation and O Genesis Recordings, the label run by Tim Burgess & Nik Void of Factory Floor.

With many of his collaborators linked to other bands like Trash Kit, Bas Jan (Fire Records), Es (La Vida Es Un Mus), Carlisle is part of a communal UK underground making vital independent music worth delving into.

 

After several years focused on collaboration, Carlisle has stepped out on his own recently, releasing a soundtrack to the enduringly influential cult 1922 film Häxan, which compiled highlights from a commissioned score he performed in Belfast, and at a later sold-out show at the Barbican in London.

His debut solo album of songs ‘Bloody Saturnalia’ followed soon after, exhibiting contemplative art rock and finely executed synth pop reminiscent of Japan, Prefab Sprout and XTC. Across nine tracks, Carlisle obliquely addressed our sinister contemporary slide towards political populism as well as other heavy themes, including climate change and the death of his father.

Now Carlisle presents another solo outing, titled ‘Sailors On The Roiling Sea’. Described as a work of ‘scintillating art rock, DIY pop & vintage electronics exploring AI, climate change, health anxiety & divisive contemporary discourse’, it’s just as rich and profuse with originality and fervency; an impactful ten-track collection that turns its gaze towards the looming spectres of AI and one of Carlisle’s abiding themes, climate change. It also features contributions from an illustrious crew of current and past collaborators including Julian Tardo (part of the highly recommended Insides & Earwig), Foz Foster (The Monochrome Set), Marcus Hamblett (Bears Den, Rozi Plain, This Is The Kit) & more.

Ahead of the album’s release later this month, he’s already revealed the first single ‘AI Trash’ – a dazzling shot of rollicking post-punk and glam rock in the vein of early Roxy Music – and now presents a more introspective second single with ‘Spiralling’, accompanied by a video shot by the photographer, musician & one of his regular collaborator’s Aubrey Simpson, who also plays on the album. It’s a beautifully elegiac song, with a visual that resembles a modern take on some lost video you might have caught on Top of the Pops in the mid-70s, all blue-green hues and fisheye lens filters.

Check Nick’s words about the song below, give it a watch, and keep an eye out for his album at the end of the month, an essential listen for fans of Sparks, Robyn Hitchcock and Metronomy. The wonderfully, Super-8 stylized video for ‘AI Trash‘ is included below too.

Nick Carlisle – Photo by Aubrey Simpson 16

'This is my health anxiety song, sung from the perspective of someone with an avoidant personality - a lethal combination. The urge to shut our ears to any potential anxiety triggers takes us down a dark hole that can be difficult to re-emerge from'

 
 
 
‘Sailors On The Roiling Sea’ is out on the 22nd November via The Colour Inverted Records, available on Cassette, CD + digitally HERE.

 

An online listening party is scheduled for the 20th November, RSVP via the link above.

 

Photos by Aubrey Simpson.