Announced fresh off the back of the band’s recent return to the stage with sets described as “a musical experience of intergalactic proportions” 1st 3 Magazine and “a truly audio-visual experience” The Manc, Hello Cosmos announce their latest single ‘Turn Off The News’ a gritty outing encompassing themes of doom and paranoia perpetuated via news headlines and media soundbites.
‘Turn Off The News’ lands as the first single from what will be the first full-band album since their acclaimed debut, currently due for release early next year.
With the initial recording taking place the day after England departed from the EU, the track developed from a studio session reflective of the dark, doomy and intense atmosphere throughout the country’s inner cities with the original working title ‘The Day After’. As the track progressed via sessions at Greenmount Studios with the band’s producer Jamie Lockheart during 2020, vocals developed around themes of negative news stories and who they serve, resulting in the title ‘Turn off The News’.
Laced with unsettling static, dramatic violins and thrashing guitar licks complimented by the punk poetry vocal style of a town crier challenging the status quo, ‘Turn off The News’ takes aim at greed and manipulation. “Divided and confused we were tainted by hate.”, “Like lambs to the slaughter of the daily papers.”
About the track vocalist Ben Robinson says;
“The story of this song threads through some dark times for me personally, the UK and the globe.
I always aim to be positive with Hello Cosmos vocals, writing from a place of sadness or negativity is much easier than making a positive statement interesting. But this track was a sign of the times so I went through my darker lyric notes, a lot had been written in the harder moments of lockdown, the 5 o’clock updates from Witty and Borris, the Twitter rabbit holes of info on how PPE contracts had been abused, the whole circus show of Hancock and the media shitshow surrounding UK politics. This is where the title of the track comes from, at that time the news was so unhealthy and was constant, it wasn’t helping people it was beating us down with doom and paranoia constantly, while the media was celebrating having something to run with that had the attention of the world….
Frustrating times all bottled up, so I took every bit of my anger and went into the vocal booth for the first scream I’d done since lockdown happened, I channelled everything I could into that chorus and let it all out, what you hear is the first and only take.”
Hello Cosmos are a Greater Manchester-centred collective of creatives. A four-piece at their core, the band are led by songwriter and bass player Ben Robinson, the founder of the celebrated bluedot & Kendal Calling festivals. Also featuring the talents of mainstay members Angela Chan on viola/synths/vocals (notably a member of the Mercury-shortlisted Lanterns on the Lake and a touring member of Placebo), powerhouse drummer Simon Robinson (brother of Ben) and the uniquely styled guitarist Adrian Ingham (of Deathretro, assisted by a stack of FX pedals); together as Hello Cosmos they are a meeting of minds of telepathic harmony with immense capability.
TURN OFF THE NEWS – OUT 17 APR 2024, VIA COSMIC GLUE
STREAM ON ALL SERVICES HERE
Unfurling a string of stimulating singles and EPs since their formation in 2017, Hello Cosmos found their breakthrough in 2019 with the obliterating electro-punk of the ‘Run for President’ EP; winning over supporters at BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music and Radio X, to Under The Radar and Louder Than War in the process. In 2021 Hello Cosmos released their acclaimed debut LP: ‘Dream Harder’ with Louder Than War praising it as a record “guaranteed to knock your socks off” (4.5/5). In the latter half of 2021, Robinson teamed up with US-based producer The Olchemist for a collaborative mixtape effort entitled ‘Golden Dirt’, which was written and recorded in the lockdown of that year. In 2023, Hello Cosmos unveiled the remix album ‘Hard Dirt (Remixed’, which featured thumping reworkings of HC tracks by Jagz Kooner, Richard Norris, Catu Diosis, Foxtrap, Joe Thompson and more. Across their projects to date, Hello Cosmos have worked with an impressive 50+ collaborators and counting…