Beige Banquet

Beige Banquet's second full-length album, Ornamental Hermit, is out now on all streaming platforms and vinyl is available via their own label Just Step Sideways in the UK, Rennes-based Swish Swash Records (FINDOM, Volk Soup) in Europe and Future Shock Records (The Serfs, The Drin) in the USA.

Produced by Beige Banquet with the help of engineer Matt Green (Sniffany & The Nits, Artefact, Joanna Gruesome) at Head Cold Studios and mixed and mastered by David Forcier (Civic) ‘Animals’ captures the band in a professional studio environment, moving away from the lofi bedroom recordings of previous releases, the studio provided a perfect environment for the band to develop compositionally and explore a more textural approach.

Combining layers of noise and bursts of saturated percussion, with a driving rhythm section, ‘Ornamental Hermit’ features a rich and more dynamic sound and captures the raw power of the Beige Banquet live show for the first time.

Previous praise for 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

“It’s this delicate interplay of raw power and intricate detail that truly defines ‘Ornamental Hermit’ – a testament to Beige Banquet’s ability to plumb the depths and emerge with sonic wonders” - In Shreds

London dark punk act Beige Banquet are releasing their second full-length album, Ornamental Hermit, out March 13th via their own label Just Step Sideways in the UK, Rennes-based Swish Swash Records (FINDOM, Volk Soup) in Europe and Future Shock Records (The Serfs, The Drin) in the US.

Featuring their two most recent singles, ‘Animals’ and ‘Ornamental Hermit’, plus new focus track ‘People’, the new album 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 of the record, Brierley states that “each song follows a different character, and they each end up a fair bit darker and intense compared with previous output. The album follows the evolution of these characters, 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). The band have also been invited by Tim Burgess to perform on his curated stage at this year’s edition of Kendal Calling Festival as part of the Psych Sunday bill.

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