Next month, Squid will be back in the States to tour their latest collection of noise-inflected art-punk, O Monolith, which they spent last September unleashing upon audiences across Europe. Released a few months prior in June, the album is yet another in a long tradition of boundary-pushing Warp Records releases, yet one of relatively few that predominantly explores the terrains of fringe rock genres such as krautrock, prog, and math rock (which isn’t to say the band isn’t heavily indebted to labelmates such as Yves Tumor and Oneohtrix Point Never).
But between these two ambitious tours, the London-based collective closed out 2023 with three headlining sets and three festival appearances over the course of nine days across Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, China, and Thailand. While the East Asian excursion was likely a blur of travel interspersed with intensive performances, the camera roll they returned home with depicts a peaceful sojourn artistically rendered in grainy black-and-white.
Check out a few highlights from the trip captured by the band on Olympus Mju 1 35mm film below, and take a look at their list of upcoming North American dates here.
Seoul pre-show routines
Shibuya builders
Causeway Bay dim sum preparation
Goodbye tour, hello Thailand
Jakartan storm defenses withstand
Shibuya crossing
Our favorite store
Sai Wan swimming shed—a truly excellent swim if you can avoid the container ships!
Louis in a tunnel in frosty Seoul
Hi! Welcome to the Indonesian National Monument!
A lift down culinary delights
Hong Kong’s neon glory
Ben (sound engineer extraordinaire) smiles at the delights of bibimbap
Father takes son out for a pint of beer in downtown Hong Kong
