A tragicomedy set around mental health, cycles of addiction and living within a divided nation, Cardiff four-piece, SURREAL KINNOCK release their new single BIPOLARISM on Fri 24 January 2020 on their home city’s own Strangetown Records. Both celebration and requiem, the piano-paved, proto-punk four-minute rush is an elegy to “coping, barely, always prepared for a laugh or two in spite of it all.”
Led by songwriting brothers, Gruffydd John and Meredydd Russell-Jones, also providing vocals, keys and guitars, the band is orientated to shamelessly steal from all and sundry, not limited to new-wave pinups, but the heroes of R’n’B, psychedelia and gospel soul. The brothers’ philosophy is to mitigate the risk of being singled out for just one misdemeanour, thereby getting away with them all.
Together with their extended family of Andrew Hughes on symphonic percussion and Dano Lew on lead bass, the band’s epic snapshot of modern times, Bipolarism is classic pop tailored with human grist, DIY ethics and genuine instruments. Wild, free and telling a world of truths, Bipolarism perfectly captures the plurality of the human condition, the wearing of masks, creating facades and enabling each fragile human to over-perform as a functioning being in everyday life.
Bipolarism is produced by Dafydd Ieuan of Super Furry Animals and engineered by Thomas V. Westgård. Recorded over one weekend in August 2019, the track is the first of four forthcoming tracks, which will combine to form 2020’s Clean Living EP.
