After a period in the wilderness, Welsh post-punks, Chain of Flowers, return with Never Ending Space – their second album with 10 full-blooded anthems of torn dreams, poetic delirium and “hope stretched too far.” Never Ending Space is rich with with reckonings, reverb, and redemption and is due for release on 26th May.
The record first began materialising during the pandemic, by which point most of the band had relocated from Cardiff to London. Reunited and rejuvenated, they picked up where they left off, booking two multi-day sessions in Hackney with producer Jonah Falco and successfully channelled their kinetic chemistry into Never Ending Space.
Watch the nocturnal rush of album track, ‘Serving Purpose‘ here:
Musically, Never Ending Space is more maximal than the group’s previous work, fleshed out with trumpets, saxophone, synth, percussion boxes, and spoken word. (Smith jokingly calls them The Chain Of Flowers Orchestra). Yet the songs still swing and soar with a charged heart, ripe with hooks, drama and ragged melody.
The album’s title track is also its closing cut, a stomping, sparkling ode to “the wrong side of the night, where time goes to die.” Smith describes the scene: “Everyone’s talking, screaming, trauma bonding, but no one’s listening. Broken dialogue. Shouting over each other. You want to switch off, but everyone’s too f*cked.” The guitars spiral and slide towards the oblivion of dawn, the chance to crash and do it all again. The song’s refrain captures the illusion of time, spilling through the haze of days, from chaos to acceptance: “I can’t see the clock through the shrouds of smoke / Does it matter? / Common ground / In a never ending space.”
Their New album Neverending Space is released on 26th May 2023 on A L T E R.
Pre-order the record here: https://alterstock.org/product/never-ending-space/
