Towards the end of the last decade, Blue Bendy emerged in an England that was beginning to love bands with various elements and that were rediscovering the rock that a generation, twenty or so years before, had learnt to love. A few singles released intermittently created anticipation and, above all, projected the idea of how they would work in the studio, how they would align a music made up of minicataclisms with studio precision.
The wait ended with ‘Mr Motorbike’ in 2023, the first single ahead of ‘So Medieval’, released in April this year. Like many bands that have looked for ideas in the foundations of post-rock (not for the existence of the thing itself, but for the theory of the thing), whether it’s Caroline or Still House Plants, the London sextet makes music from small fires, both delving into the atmospheres of the experimental and vulgarising rock that only wants to be friends with Spotify.
They are also the bet of an independent label and distributor that has existed in London for more than two decades and that in the last three years has decided to change the game and make bets that would have been unimaginable for them pre-pandemic. Five years ago, an album like ‘So Medieval’ wouldn’t have happened on The State51 Conspiracy, but today the label is part of the conversation and plays on several fronts, whether it’s the excellent work on compilations like ‘The NID Tapes’, the bets on Bingo Fury and the Blue Bendy and, on another front, the dynamisation of the Factory, a concert hall in the heart of London.
It may seem like a side issue, but after labels like Ninja Tune and Rough Trade dominated this conversation, this year has seen a natural disorder of things, with smaller labels wanting to take part in this new expression of English rock: be it Bison with Still House Plants or State51 with Blue Bendy.
It makes sense, as natural as art-rock’s anti-system is, it’s important to remember that this is still anti-system rock, which challenges the norms and seeks to find new paths for new audiences. It’s not nostalgia music – as, to a certain extent, Black Country New Road and Black Midi was and is – but for a new audience that is looking for these things now, regardless of their origins and some sensations being rehashed. The emotions, the management of Blue Bendy’s minicataclysms are a testament to the confidence of modern rock, convinced that it can still be explosive and intentional and believing that in twenty-odd years’ time there will be bands pushing ambition because, one day, one of those kids heard Blue Bendy at the right time in his life. And he got a few of his mates excited about making noise with him. AS
