Swallow the Rat (NZ) and Clone (NYC) each share hazy, guitar-heavy tracks from their upcoming split
On May 21, New Zealand’s Swallow the Rat (feat ex-My Education guitarist Brian Purington) and New York’s Clone (ex-Dead Leaf Echo, Squad Car) will release a new split LP via Headbump Records. The two bands first bonded at the New Colossus Festival, with plans hatched to play SXSW together as well as a date in New Orleans. The pandemic prevented that from happening, but the two bands still came together to put together a set of new music, with Swallow the Rat on one side and Clone on the other.
Today, each band has shared a new track from the album. Swallow the Rat’s “Preservation Plan” is a taut, melancholy post-punk track with abrasive guitars and hazy, shoegaze density, reminiscent of Sonic Youth with more soaring guitar leads and haunting organ. Meanwhile, Clone’s “Woman of the Year” puts up a dense wall of guitars and a dizzying atmosphere, ecstatic and hallucinatory all at once. They’re two complementary sides of the same, mesmerizing, guitar-heavy coin, and you can hear them both below.
Swallow the Rat/Clone split LP tracklist:
1. STR – Fall Away
2. STR – Preservation Plan
3. STR – Don’t
4. STR – Station
5. Clone – Deja Vu
6. Clone – Speak, Memory
7. Clone – Woman Of The Year
8. Clone – Easy On The Eyes
Preorder the album via Rough Trade in the US and Golden Antenna in the EU.
