Beige Banquet

“Trading in unquestioning drum machines for propellant live drums, and adding agile layers of guitars and percussion over a saturated bassline, Beige Banquet display a tense and determined edge.” - Louder Than War

“Even in the often bizarre post-punk genre, Beige Banquet is an outsider.” - Dansende Beren (Belgium)

London dark punk act Beige Banquet have announced details of their second full-length album, Ornamental Hermit, out March 13th via Rennes-based Swish Swash Records (FINDOM, Volk Soup) in Europe and Future Shock Records (The Serfs, The Drin) in the US. The announcement comes alongside the release of a new single, also called ‘Ornamental Hermit’ - out January 17th.

After sharing ‘Animals’, the first offering from the record, back in October 2023, this announcement marks the first major release by the band with their expanded five-piece lineup, which formed in 2021 to perform as a live act in support of their debut album, Beta.

Having initially formed as the solo project of multi-instrumentalist Tom Brierley, their early work was characterised by the tightly-wound amalgamation of drum machines and synth-driven riffs, both of which formed the backbone of their debut album. Since deciding to morph into the current incarnation of the group, they have become a more ferocious unit, exchanging the mechanised sounds for a fuller, live-oriented sound.

Working alongside Matt Green (Sniffany and the Nits, Joanna Gruesome) on production duties and David Forcier (CIVIC) on mixing and mastering, Beige Banquet recorded the album at Head Cold Studios, and allowed themselves a newfound sense of freedom to hone the wealth of demos they had tested in front of live audiences since expanding the lineup, and whittled them down to ten tracks that fit together as a coherent album.

As they move away from the lo-fi DIY approach, their sound has been allowed the space to develop more texture and a sense of organic dynamism, and the ‘Ornamental Hermit’ track perfectly captures this new approach without sacrificing what gave their debut album such a strong impact. There are points where this revised tact is reminiscent of the art punk of Powerplant, the industrial textures of Throbbing Gristle and driving anarcho sounds of Institute, forging their own, and often strange take on the genre.

Brierley’s often nihilistic and character-driven lyricism feels as though it packs more of a punch when backed by a fuller sound, and allows the rest of the band to experiment further with their approach to creating frenetic post-punk where the old methods sometimes faced restriction.

Speaking about the themes on show, Brierley states that the song’s protagonist “might be a fictional character, they might not - it doesn’t really matter as I guess it’s up to the listeners interpretation. The album follows the evolution of this character, and each song is a vignette in the Ornamental Hermit’s journey”.

Having generated a large amount of buzz around their live shows, appearing alongside the likes of Do Nothing, DITZ and shame, and playing festivals such as End of the Road and Left of the Dial, the band continue their dogged dedication to touring with a series of European shows in support of the album in March and April of this year (full list of dates below).

Beige Banquet are Tom Brierley (vocals, guitar), Ian Crafter (drums), Joe Munsey (guitar, vocals), Danny Gillies (bass) and Blake Carlson-Joshua (percussion, synth, vocals).