Five years ago, NYC duo Russian Baths released a debut album which recreated Sonic Youth’s balance of post-punk anthems and flirtation with noise and other ambient sound. And while their forthcoming second record appears to see them gravitate toward the latter, Mirror’s lead single “Split” feels more concerned with negative space than with filling the listener’s ears with feedback-heavy no wave. The latest single, “Bind,” similarly plays with horror-film conventions as the band’s signature gothic take on noise rock unravels from a frantic 7/4 time signature into an uneasy final 90 seconds of instrumental panic—including an ambiguous metallic sound that the band specifies was created by “dragging chains across a trailer in the woods.”
Naturally, the sparse lyrical accompaniment veers into the supernatural. “The lyrics seem to touch on historical grievances, from witch hunts to trials at sea, all of them connected by misguided vengeance desperate to escape the past but doomed to repeat it,” the duo shares. “It’s all a sinking ship that keeps pressing onward,” they add cryptically of the recording’s sense of doom.
Check out the music video for the track—which pretty accurately depicts the vague sense of anxiety of the song—below. You can also find their previous single, “Split,” and pre-order Mirror before it arrives June 14 via Good Eye Records here.
