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Black Country, New Road

1 festival played

Seven-piece from the Cambridgeshire scene turning klezmer-tinged chamber arrangements into something cathartic — now built around shared, passed-around vocals.

Black Country, New Road formed in 2018, emerging from the same circle of musicians as the short-lived group Nervous Conditions and drawing players from Cambridgeshire and London. The band's early sound placed sprawling, slow-building song structures alongside saxophone, violin and keyboards, with spoken and half-shouted vocals from Isaac Wood. For the First Time appeared in 2021, followed by Ants From Up There in 2022.

Wood left the group shortly before the release of that second album, and the remaining members continued without recruiting a replacement, instead dividing lead vocals between Tyler Hyde, May Kershaw and Charlie Wayne. The later material leans further toward chamber pop and folk arrangement, with piano and woodwind more prominent and the writing shared across the band.

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