Adelaide rockers Bad//Dreems have returned with a brand new single, sharing the blistering “Desert Television” earlier today.
The new single comes during a period of moderate sadness for fans of the Baddies, who were originally set to be on the home stretch of a regional tour of the country this weekend. Unfortunately, the world had other plans, and both the group and their fans have been stuck at home wondering about what could have been.
Not content to sit back and let life happen without them, the group have now released their latest single, sharing “Desert Television” via Farmer & The Owl earlier today.
Their first piece of new music since the release of Doomsday Ballet back in October, “Desert Television” was recorded during the band’s recent trip to the UK and Europe, which was sadly cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“With a week to kill in the London midwinter, we decided to hole up in a shoebox in Hackney to record some new songs,” the group explained.
“Engineered by Rory Attwell (Test Icicles, Die! Die! Die!) between a sweatshop, a Carribean [sic] restaurant and a prayer room. DT is a psychedelic vision for the dark times, knocked out in a few hours. Enjoy!”
A powerful track that blends element of dark post-punk with furious alt-rock, an atmospheric synth line rears its head throughout as frontman Ben Marwe asks the listener through his South Australian accent, “Desert television/Have you lost the vision?”
Backed by an ominous video directed by longtime collaborator (and visual genius) Tom Stevens, the accompanying clip pairs together dark images of death and other unsettling events. Cobbled together using footage of old film, the video perfectly complements the single’s content, while Marwe appears sporadically throughout, performing the track in his trademark style.
Speaking to Rolling Stone soon after his return from the UK, guitarist Alex Cameron noted that the group had managed to record four demo tracks during their time in London. While it’s unclear when fans will get to hear the rest of these new tracks, or when their regional tour of the country will be rescheduled, it’s clear that Bad//Dreems aren’t letting a global pandemic slow them down.
