Editors have an Ability to Consistently Evolve their Sound, Whilst Remaining Uncompromising in their Vision – the Trend Continues on Forthcoming New Album, ‘EBM’
A band who have never stood still creatively, EBM is Editors’ most leftfield material yet – a thrilling, unrelenting thrust of full-bodied electro-industrial rock. Set to arrive on September 23rd via Play It Again Sam, the album will be the first with Benjamin John Power, aka Blanck Mass – announced last month as a full-time member of the band alongside the release of ‘Heart Attack’. The album title is an acronym of Editors and Blanck Mass but also a knowing reference to Electronic Body Music, the potent sound that originated in the 1980s and which has hugely influenced Editors’ new material, where the synths of bands like Nitzer Ebb, Front 242 and DAF hammer darkly amongst smoke machines, strobe lights, and the smell of leather.
Power’s addition to the band meant that, for the first time, the song structures weren’t coming from frontman Tom Smith, with him and further band members Justin Lockey, Elliott Williams, Russell Leetch, and Ed Lay receiving files to tinker with and flesh out in the studio when they eventually regrouped. “Ben has certainly been a shot of adrenaline in our creative process,” says Tom. “The songs are so immediate and in your face.”
A follow-up to ‘Heart Attack’, ‘Karma Climb’ serves as a second preview to the album – the band’s seventh – and is a stomping track that pairs ghostly atmospherics with stadium-level anthemia. Speaking on the new single, Tom comments: “It’s about hedonistic escapism, not only from the world generally but also from what people think of you.” The single is accompanied by a dynamic live video.
The six-piece have also announced a UK and European tour for 2023 – more info can be found here. Known for their compelling live presence, the tour offers Editors the chance to test these new tracks in the live spaces for which they were intended, as Power explains: “There is a strong physicality to this record. EBM started its life with the intention of connecting with people and filling a very physical space. There is also however an emotional physicality running throughout; An urgency and a sense of panic. An unease. Even in its more tender moments, there is a yearning for connection.”
The songs are so immediate and in your face.
Tom Smith
EBM kicks off the next era of one of the UK’s most intriguing and enduring musical success stories. All six of Editors’ studio albums over their seventeen-year career have charted in the UK top 10, with 2 scoring number 1’s, and their debut, The Back Room, being shortlisted for the Mercury Prize. Their latest tour saw them play their biggest UK headline show to date at OVO Arena, Wembley in 2020, signalling their ever-growing audience. Their successes have been just as impressive across the channel, regularly selling out tours and headlining festivals throughout Europe and beyond. Arguably the key to their longevity is their ability to consistently evolve their sound, whilst remaining uncompromising in their vision. This next chapter proves Editors are continuing the trend.
Band photo by Rahi Rezvani.
All other photos taken by Editors’ Justin Lockey during the EBM album recordings.
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