In 2024, we listed South London five-piece Ain't as one of that year's Best New Bands. They're released a few great singles since then, including “Pirouette,” "Jude," and "Long Short Round." Today, they've returned with a new track and the announcement of their debut EP How They Faked The Moon Landing, out May 22.
Aside from the pleasant existential cries over melodically grinding guitars, turns out, "Grazer" is incredibly my shit. It draws inspiration from one of the greatest horror/psychosexual works of art, Clive Barker's Hellraiser. The 1987 film was Barker's directorial debut and inspired by his own novella The Hellbound Heart. Hellraiser would go on to be a huge horror franchise, but that first one is really special. It not so subtly explores how tangled our fears and cravings are — desire and death, bodies as a vessels of rot and pleasure. "Grazer" takes all of this in, lyrically nodding to infamous antagonist Frank Cotton: "Took my organs out So I could count/ The differences between Man and desiring machine."
Vocalist Hanna Baker Darch put it more eloquently in the press release:
I've always thought it cowardly when people assume popular culture is unprofound; the mere fact we are animals making art is inherently mystical. 'Grazer' kind of vents this opinion, using hellraiser as an example. It's been downplayed as another pulpy, ridiculous slasher franchise - and it is, but it's also got these insane parallels to concepts in Deleuze and Guattari's philosophy: frank cotton is literally a body without organs, and he is also a desiring machine. It feels increasingly necessary to stress the importance of creativity - not just high-brow works - when artistic expression is increasingly under threat from AI.
Watch the video for "Grazer" below.
TRACKLIST:
01 “Long Short Round“
02 “Jude“
03 “Teething“
04 “Oar“
05 “Grazer“
06 “Pirouette“
How They Faked The Moon Landing is out 5/22. Pre-order here.
