🎧 Approved: SCALER

Bristol band SCALER twist live electronics into something heavier, sharper and more emotionally charged than most of their peers. Brutalist and bruising, their sound feels traditionally Bristolian with its immense low-end pressure tempered by subdued spatial stretches that drift and sprawl.

New single ‘Salt’, featuring Akiko Haruna, pushes that even further; a collaboration years in the making that’s every bit as focused and feral as you’d hope.

The track is full of tension, vocals that stutter and fold in on themselves, percussion that feels like it’s holding something back, and a dense low-end that never quite resolves. There’s even some echoes of Pop Smoke-esque production in there. It doesn’t build towards release so much as sit in the feeling, heavy yet wired.

Haruna’s lyrics dig into the mess of shame and self-perception, and the push-pull between wanting to be seen and fearing what that exposure might bring. “Shame can threaten a sense of identity,” she says, “but when it’s self-inflicted, it can feel safer than judgment”. 

The band say ‘Salt’ was a starting point for their new album ‘Endlessly’ (out on 26 Sep), “sparse and skeletal” until Haruna’s vocals brought it into focus. It’s a heavy first step towards the upcoming album, a record that promises to keep digging where it hurts.

🎧 Listen to ‘Salt’ featuring Akiko Haruna below