by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Leeds’ Beige Palace have truly mastered a special and singular kind of gnawing intensity, their minimalist punk is utterly abrasive but incredibly captivating. Their sound scrapes and peels with broken syllables, a detached sense of melody, and dread that forms in tense open spaces. The construction of the band’s interwoven brand of post-hardcore is brilliant throughout their second album, Making Sounds For Andy. Due out November 17th via Human Worth (Modern Technology, Thee Alcoholics, Grub Nap), their upcoming album finds the trio of Freddy Vinehill-Cliffe, Kelly Bishop, and Ant Bedford pushing their songs to sparse limits, every note and beat resonating to its full potential. Beige Palace don’t need to be in a rush to create heavy tunes, and they prove that a stumble is just as effective as a sprint.
“Distant Fizz” is built on a staccato riff and what we’ll call howling drones, the song stretched and pulled with little to distract you from the incessant repetition. There’s a quality to it that feels like watching the pieces come together, falling in their place, shimmering with a sort of deranged brilliance. In the “Live at HOHM” video, there’s a sense that each instrument is sort of playing against each other, the groove snaking with an atonal clamor. While some band’s like to sweeten the pot with a soft vocal melody, Bishop’s commanding and drawn out vocals as well as the mumbled shouts of Vinehill-Cliffe only add to the carnage. It’s a song that feels perpetually set in motion and then pushed down a flight of stairs. Modern post-hardcore minimalism at it’s finest.
Speaking about the video, Vinehill-Cliffe shared:
“Earlier this year we spent a day at Hohm Recording in Bradford with our friends Tom Goodall, Ross Halden and Kirsty Garland. It's an especially sentimental space for me personally, because I recorded a whole bunch of demos with my teenage band down there back when it was known as Factory Street Studios. You might have already seen the first cut from this video session, 'Waterloo Sublet'. Now here's number two! 'Distant Fizz', probably my favourite song from the new album."