Current Affairs

Today Current Affairs have announced details of their debut album ‘Off the Tongue’, set for release on July 14th via Tough Love Records. Along with the announcement, they have shared the album’s first single “Right Time” and a string of live dates - see below.
 
To call Current Affairs a Glasgow band may initially seem misdirection. Though Joan Sweeney (ex-Rose McDowall’s Band, Aggi Doom, The Royal We) is a lifer, Sebastian Ymai (Comidillo Tapes, Pissy, Anxiety) came from Chile via York, recently relocating to Berlin in 2021, and new member Gemma Fleet (The Wharves, Order of the Toad, Dancer) alongside Andrew Milk (Shopping, Pink Pound) were persuaded to leave London for the ‘second city’ after touring through with previous bands. However, Glasgow is the heart and hub of the band’s music, musical life and the place where 'Off the Tongue' was solidified and produced. 

Written from within the world of crumbling services, broken bonds and wounded spirits, their debut album 'Off the Tongue' rolls off an ecstatic rage, filled with hope for you, them and everyone else.
 
A call to arms against the fragmentation of the Left, Joan comments on first single "Right Time" saying: "It started as a song to help someone close to me out of a funk and ended up being what I turn to a little too. Musically and lyrically it switches between those double voices of support: one with sympathy and the other to get you out, on and up. When we play it, it always creates this strong energy and makes me feel ready for most anything you could chuck at us! It could be read as a statement of intent for the rest of the record: propulsive and hook-focussed, caterwauling and catchy, but with a positive disposition more from the darker side."

The accompanying video was directed by Maria Tedemalm, who used Seb's graphic, abstract art that the band uses for their artwork as a base for the video.
 
Current Affairs' present line up formed in 2020, but the four have been circling each other for years, touring and playing with their previous bands within the close UK network of DIY music. Stalwarts of their respective scenes they finally began working together through the creation of the Spitehouse collective – a project designed to promote Queer and female-fronted music through events mainly held at Transmission Gallery and Glasgow Autonomous Space, putting on many local and international acts (Sneaks, Sacred Paws, Still House Plants and Comfort amongst others). When an opening for a new bassist arrived, Gemma was the obvious compliment, the slogan of Spitehouse being the language of Current Affairs – “Everyone’s welcome, but don’t get it twisted.”
 
Following on from 2019’s EP singles collection, ‘Object & Subject’, the wait for their debut full-length may belie the urgency of its sound, but as the album’s lead single emphasises, “it’s the right time!”

‘Off The Tongue’ is ten short, sharp bursts, written in pieces over a long time and distance, but fully formed in the instant of the recording room across just a few days by producer Ross McGowan at Chime Studio. Current Affairs’ song-writing process has always been collaborative. Songs are developed responsively, with each of the band’s members sending/bringing elements or hooks to each other, but practices being the place where the songs flesh out, structure and are fully realised. These new songs feel a little brighter than their previous offerings, yet still hold true to their propulsive and caterwauling sound. Still embryonic in the most exciting way that that can be. Current Affairs’ music straddles new-wave pop and gothic post-punk in the way that you should expect a Glasgow-Berlin band to do so: with grit and panache. 
 
Flowing through the many different layers of relationships, moving from romance to friendship, community and socio-politics before coming back to a personal conversation at the end, Sweeney sees her songwriting on ‘Off the Tongue’ as a way to inhabit the different parts of herself and let them speak with unfettered clarity. “Current Affairs is where I can burn the world down one minute and then push for brighter things the next” she explains. “I wanted to show that there’s a place for all your feelings and personalities and that we should sometimes let the negative thought ring out honestly and then show it a little compassion, give it a purpose. It’s not always bad to rage, cry or be a Pollyanna.”