The catchy and ramshackle Glasgow post-punk combo Nightshift are ready to follow up their 2022 “odds and sods” collection Made Of The Earth with another proper LP. It’s called Homosapien, and it’s dropping in July. Lead single “Crystal Ball” has a hypnotic quality that pairs well with its title, but as singer and keyboardist Eothen Stern explains, the song is about real-world concerns rather than the fantastical:

Have to say this idea came about through the despair of the aftermath of Brexit and going back to visit the seaside town surrounding the area I’m from in the south coast of England, an area that is inherently very Tory/conservative and voted to leave. This was one of the many to follow scary moves towards fascism. This ongoing idea that you believe there is progress but your idea of progress, community, acceptance, difference is not other people’s idea of progress and ultimately it is regression to darker years. The song refers to the scary reality that many people feel to tighten border control and hostile fear of others. “Archaic seaside voting for the oppressor, you’ll never get the upper hand. Take my hand and understand” The idea of bringing people in and not making them feel like no one cares about them. But also being angry that they aren’t able to accept anything but fascism.

The area I’m from is on the south coast of England, an area that is inherently very Tory/conservative. Glasgow is more left/socialist leaning. Fight around left and right and have recently been very inspired by Naomi Klein’s ‘Doppelganger’ book talking about political diagonalism and how the jump from the left to the right is all warped. I was thinking about how in austerity there can become this scarcity politics where marginalized groups also turn against one another. When they in fact have more in common under the same oppressive government than they realize.

The guitars on this one are fantastic, especially when they crank up the distortion and cut loose. Watch the video below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Crystal Ball”
02 “Sure Look”
03 “Together We Roll”
04 “S.U.V.”
05 “Your Good Self”
06 “Cut”
07 “Side Effects”
08 “Phone”
09 “Tutorial”
10 “Mellow Baby”
11 “Crush”

Homosapien is out 7/26 on Trouble In Mind. Pre-order it from the label or Bandcamp.