Dutch post punk/new wave/doomgaze/dreamwave Rats On Rafts have announced the release of their new studio album, Deep Below.
The announcement comes with the release of lead single “Japanese Medicine” and its accompanying video. The 9-track record will be out on the 7th of February 2025 through Fire Records & Kurious Recordings. Pre-order it here.
Out of the fog emerges a darker, slower, eroded Rats on Rafts. According to the press release, ‘Deep Below’ is less rich in the mood swings of its predecessor 2021’s ‘Excerpts From Chapter 3’ for the waters have stilled, and barren, fog-strewn wastelands remain. Highlighting different shades within the monochrome landscape compared to their previous, more colourful albums, they delve further into their psyche, questioning our ties with nature, religion, and each other. Echoes of The Cure, Cocteau Twins, and Slowdive seem present, yet so many different influences make up an album that only they could create. It sees the band coming of age while raising their heads from the underground.
Lead single ‘Japanese Medicine’ is a haunting minor chord piece driven by debris of icy chiming guitars, galloping drums and waves of lush synths. lyrically it gathers memories of teenage friendship, littered with cigarettes, life-changing records, punctuated with the dark thoughts and the demons they summon up.
David Fagan says: “Japanese Medicine is aimed at a former version of myself, that person’s gone but occasionally I miss him because life seemed very promising and unpredictable.“
When Rats on Rafts approached the accomplished documentary maker David Kleijwegt for advice, he volunteered to make the music video “At the time I put myself forward as their next videoclip maker, I was still unaware that they had just made the best record of their career.” Kleijwegt asked his brother in arms, the overqualified cinematographer Reinier van Brummelen to work with him on the music video “The foundation for the Japanese Medicine video is taken from material I shot previously. The desolate character of the desert that we chose amplifies the sentiment of the song.”
Check out “Japanese Medicine” below, followed by the album’s artwork and tracklisting.
Rats On Rafts “Deep Below” Tracklist:
- Afterworld
- Japanese Medicine
- All These Things
- Hibernation
- Voiceprint
- The Day Before
- Deep Below
- Nature Breaks
- Sleepwalking
Photo credit: Jasmijn Slegh
