BENEFITS return with new single “Land Of The Tyrants”

Teesside’s Benefits return with their new single “Land Of The Tyrants”. The track marks their first new material since 2023’s widely acclaimed debut album “NAILS”, which was released via Invada Records (BEAK>, Billy Nomates, and more).

“NAILS” landed in April last year as a carpet bomb of anger and disillusionment about divisive, xenophobic, and toxic rhetoric, told through the filter of brutal, eviscerating music. Prior to release, the band had generated a word of mouth following most artists can only dream of, and after catching the ear of Invada Records co-founder Geoff Barrow (as well as other high-profile fans such as the late great Steve Albini), the band released an album which delivered on all that early promise and then some. “NAILS” not only earned widespread plaudits and radio playlist spots, but it also appeared in album of the year lists from the likes of Louder Than War (#1), BBC Radio 6 Music, NME, The Quietus, The Line Of Best Fit, Loud & Quiet, Far Out, God Is In The TV, and more.

After such an incendiary year, which has also seen the band make their Glastonbury Festival debut and tour across the EU and UK, the question facing both Benefits and their fans was “what’s next?”. “Maybe it’s better to just give up” muses frontman Kingsley Hall. “A year of endlessly stopping and starting, building up, getting knocked down, transforming, imploding. I’m sure we split up at one point, but it just slipped our minds, so we carried on. Audiences came intrigued by what they’d heard about us in the music press, some stayed, some fled to the nearest exit their hands cupped tight round their ears. We supported Warmduscher and a guy in the front row recommended I get therapy. We got album of the year accolades for something we recorded in our bedrooms. It was a strange old time.”

Rather than split up, what the band did instead was re-calibrate. After going through a succession of drummers, Benefits have now settled as a two-piece made up of Hall and electronic virtuoso Robbie Major. Set on continuing their abstract process of composing music spontaneously, sending each other lyrics, beats, and notes inspired by whatever feeling or experience they might’ve had in that moment, the duo’s new work marks a shift in their style but not in their ethos. Whilst it may have been obvious to follow up “NAILS” with more aggressive, angry, noisy, and abrasive material, “Land Of The Tyrants” finds the band exploring new musical territory. “Our songs are still angry, WE are still angry” says Hall, “but we are approaching it all in a different way. This is a punk move from us, this IS punk, but not as you might know it.”

Built from a short piece Major wrote in his attic, “Land Of The Tyrants” sees Hall deliver his stream of consciousness style scattering on the frustrations of modern life and the manipulation of identity, over bass-heavy, 90s dance inflected rhythms and subtle industrial undercurrents that nod to the likes of Underworld or Leftfield. The track also features production work from acclaimed electronic musician and friend of the band, James Welsh (signed to Erol Alkan’s Phantasy label), who helped to guide the new direction.

Zera Tønin, the singer of queerpop-electro duo Arch Femmesis, additionally provides guest vocals on the track after they supported Benefits in Nottingham and captivated the band. “In the first song their singer, Zera Tønin, came out masked in a wedding veil and did the most intense, horrifying and strangely musical scream I’ve ever heard” says Hall. “It stuck with me for months and the more we wrote and recorded Land of the Tyrants the more it became obvious that the entire song should revolve around that amazing vocal hook. There was no way I could do something as otherworldly as what we’d heard in the Rescue Rooms so Zera agreed to come up with something new for our song. Again, as is tradition with Benefits, it was recorded remotely with no engineer, in a front room.” 

Directed by Teesside filmmaker John Kirkbride, the single’s accompanying video takes inspiration from the 1980 film “The Long Good Friday”, combining the songs night time drive feel with subtle 70s and 80s imagery, it was filmed from inside the car, replicating the heightened intensity of the films closing scene.

“I’m not very good at being Bob Hoskins but Robbie is surprisingly good at being Pierce Brosnan, that’s my hot take. If the people who make Bond movies want to get in touch our DMs are open” jokes Hall. “There’s something really gratifying about having a daft idea in the middle of the night – like wanting to recreate the final scene in The Long Good Friday – and then seeing it materialise with a few wonky edges, a few days later on your laptop screen. Our amazing friend Martin Fox came to the rescue with lending us his car, a lovely motor, and because he looks incredible AND hard as nails, he also agreed to play an important role in the video too. Result.”

This autumn Benefits will give fans a first live taste of this new material as they prepare to head out on a new UK and EU tour. The dates will follow an Arab Strap support date at Glasgow’s Barrowlands Ballroom later this week and will come ahead of festival appearances at Left Of The Dial, Iceland Airwaves, and Transmusical. Full dates below:

21/09 GLASGOW Barrowland Ballroom
05/10 HUDDERSFIELD The Parish
06/10 LANCASTER Kanteena
07/10 GLASGOW The Hug and Pint
08/10 EDINBURGH The Wee Red Bar
09/10 ABERDEEN Tunnels
10/10 STIRLING Tolbooth
11/10 MIDDLESBROUGH Play Brew
12/10 LIVERPOOL Shipping Forecast
13/10 PRESTON The Ferret
17/10 ROTTERDAM Left of the Dial
18/10 UTRECHT acu
19/10 ROTTERDAM Left of the Dial 
20/10 OSTEND Cafe de Zwerver
22/10 SOUTHAMPTON Joiners
23/10 BRIGHTON Hope and Ruin
24/10 MARGATE Where Else
25/10 LONDON The George Tavern
26/10 NEWPORT Le Pub
09/11 ICELAND AIRWAVES
TBC – TRANSMUSICALES (FR)

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