My New Band Believe - My New Band Believe 

When a former member of black midi (Cameron Picton) announces a new band and album, it comes with a set of expectations: irregular time signatures, organised chaos, and music that refuses to sit still long enough to be labelled.

Accompanying the link to stream My New Band Believe’s self-titled debut are twelve pages of press material, including a forensic breakdown of the album’s lyrics, context, and numerology. Cameron wants the world to know he’s been thinking about this, but what he hasn’t done is let this show in the music. Rather than the cold and clinical record those twelve pages might suggest, ‘My New Band Believe’ sounds like the product of someone following their instincts all the way through.

The album is at its best when leaping between styles, too restless to settle on any single one. Take ‘Heart of Darkness’, where, in the span of eight-and-a-half minutes, it jumps from clear-cut folk to prog to a section that can only be described as the sound of an orchestra warming up. ‘Pearls’ draws from baroque and chamber pop, but smatterings of instrumental cacophonies veer it off the designated path. Elsewhere, ‘Actress’ pulls from the avant-garde rock rule book while ‘Love Story’ flips the script by being disarmingly mundane (“D’you want potatoes or rice tonight?”).

Lyrically and conceptually, it follows suit: there are references to poet Arthur Rimbaud and author Joseph Conrad dropped in, while the album’s credits feel like an indie/post-punk pap walk (names from caroline, Jockstrap, and Shame all make an appearance). It’s at once a fever dream and a museum of Cameron’s dreams, desires, and influences - a postmodern kaleidoscope, if there ever was one.