CASSELS Lament Human Mistreatment of Animals On New Single ‘The Leaking Ark’
London duo CASSELS are pleased to reveal the video for their new single ‘The Leaking Ark’—out now, the song is the latest to be taken from their ambitioussecond album, The Perfect Ending, released on 6th September 2019 via Big Scary Monsters Recordings.
The album is available to preorder now: https://orcd.co/theleakingark
The video for ‘The Leaking Ark’ forms the second of four scheduled interconnecting releases from the album, each with an accompanying video that ties together the narrative of the record. Part one—‘The Perfect Ending’—can be seen here.
A searing rumination on the human mistreatment and exploitation of animals, ‘The Leaking Ark’ is Cassels at their most acerbic—witty and poignant, its anthropomorphisation of our fellow inhabitants of Earth cuts deep. “I’ve just run out of cute ways to say the human race is f*cking disgusting, mate” spits vocalist Jim Beck venomously as the song closes.
Talking about the track’s place on the record, Beck explains: “This is the second song in our four part tetralogy about how humans have royally f*cked the planet. Like many great songs before it, the lyrics for this one were inspired by the daytime television show Come Dine With Me. After watching numerous episodes where contestants refused to eat things like venison as they felt it reminded them too much of the fictitious cartoon deer Bambi, before readily shovelling mouthfuls of battery chicken pumped with steroids into their greedy faces, I thought it’d be fun to see if I could extend this logic for the duration of a song. And do you know what? It was a lot of fun. In many ways this song is our ‘Meat Is Murder’; a cautionary tale of human brutality. Which also name-checks Peppa Pig and Kermit The Frog. Hope you like it.”
The Perfect Ending is, in many ways, an album you’d expect Cassels to have made—packed as it is with left-field progressions and an impassioned take on contemporary issues. But while the first half of the record concerns itself with topics ranging from millennial liberalism (‘A Snowflake In Winter’) to sexual assault and victim blaming (‘In The Zoo They Feed Him Nuts’), the second tackles what is seemingly the biggest impending threat to the human race:environmental catastrophe. As is consistently the case however, Cassels approach it from a somewhat unique perspective.
The band’s debut album, Epithet, was released in October 2017 and produced by Rocky Reilly (And So I Watch You From Afar, Adebisi Shank), receiving a swathe of praise from NME, DIY, UPSET, Goldflakepaint, Louder Than War and many more. Following this release the band embarked on UK tours with Single Mothers, Meat Wave and Youth Man, and a two week European stint withGender Roles. Over the past couple of years they’ve also played shows with bands including Idles, Car Seat Headrest, Ho99o9, Eagulls, Bo Ningen andSlaves, as well as festivals including Truck, Y Not, ArcTanGent, 2000 Trees and T In The Park.
Following a UK support tour with Belgian noise band BRUTUS last month, the band will be appearing at TRUCK Festival in the summer, and announcing further UK tour dates over the coming weeks.
The Perfect Ending is released 6th September 2019 via Big Scary Monsters
CASSELS Live Dates:
JUL 26 – Steventon – TRUCK Festival