Sinews tear down all your false Idols in their frantic and frenetic new single and video — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
The Oxford post-hardcore quartet’s latest release — and the lead single from their upcoming EP Choreography — pays playful homage to Bristol band Idles, while also cautioning against hero worship. “The song’s no slight on Idles — their enormous success is a genuinely amazing example of how far a noisy band can go,” singer Rich Bell clarifies. “Our song is about the dangers of putting people on pedestals, building the people we admire into something that they’re not — false idols, hollow statues. There’s flesh and blood behind the images, and this song is about trying to reconnect with that, or maybe a failure to do so. Plus I thought the title was a bit of cheeky fun.”
The track is haphazard and crooked rager, with a restless and wonky main riff setting out an off-kilter 5/8 rhythm for the bass and drums to follow, before bursting into life in the choruses, reverting to 4/4 as Fugazi-esque dual guitars each going in different directions. The vocals screech about ‘hollow idols’ while the surprisingly spacious middle eight gives room for cryptic messages about ‘the exhausted bag’ which ‘gasps its last’. The video was filmed by the band during the recording process at the Blewbury Brass Band Hut in Oxfordshire, recorded on an old camcorder recording engineer Ali Crawford found at his house.
Idols is the opening salvo from their sophomore EP Choreography, due out Feb. 21 on Bell’s label Divine Schism. As with the band’s 2024 debut EP Reanimated, it was recorded by Crawford and mastered by Freddy Vinehill-Cliffe of the bands Thank, Beige Palace and Solderer. “We were delighted Freddy was up for mastering it,” enthuses Bell. “We’re all huge fans of his bands. Thank are basically the U.K.’s best band at the minute. We knew he’d instinctively know exactly what we were looking for from these tracks — loads of bite and attack, but with glowering, filthy low end, and the result is absolutely killer.”
Fittingly, Bell is one half of Divine Schism, who put on 80 shows across Oxford and London last year, releasing albums by Mumbles and Lou Terry as well as singles and EPs from Dream Phone and Sinews. Drummer Luke Allmond also plays in Spank Hair, Worry and Spring Major, guitarist Thomas Instone is a former member of shoegaze band Egrets, and bassist Brian Guerin was in indie rockers Dallas Don’t. After a busy 2024 saw them sharing bills with the likes of Fucked Up, USA Nails, Cosse and Pozi, Sinews head back out on tour in late February.
Watch the video for Idols above, hear more from Sinews and check out their dates below and follow them on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Sinews Tour Dates
Feb. 21 | New River Studios, London
Feb. 22 | The Bullingdon and The Library, Oxford – Oh, Community! All-Dayer
Feb. 25 | JT Soar, Nottingham
Feb. 26 | The Pipeline, Brighton
Feb. 27 | Fuel Café Bar, Manchester
Feb. 28 | Delicious Clam, Sheffield
