PSB’S PAY TRIBUTE TO BOWIE ON NEW LP
Krautrock-inspired Bright Magic celebrates Europe and the city of Berlin.
Public Service Broadcasting have announced their fourth album, Bright Magic, is out on September 24 via PIAS.
On it, the British band celebrate being pro-European, and the art, industry and influence of German capital Berlin. To get closer to the “gleaming, inspiring electricity” of the subject, PSB founder J Willgoose Esq relocated for several months after a tip-off that the legendary Hansa Studios was free for writing and recording. “I brushed up on my GCSE German, rented a flat near Kreuzberg, and got a set of keys for the studio,” he says.
Partly inspired by cinematographer Walter Ruttmann’s 1928 sound collage Wochenende (‘Weekend’) and his experimental Lichtspiel film series, Willgoose made field recordings around the city. Guests were added, including newcomer EERA, who appears on new single People Let’s Dance (“A Norwegian artist who was new to Berlin like I was, so we bonded”), actress and activist Nina Hoss (from Homeland), and Blixa Bargeld, from Einstürzende Neubauten and Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds, who provided a “scary, intense, but really good” collaborative experience.
If you think of Hansa, you probably think of Bowie. Album track The Visitor tips a Borsalino to the Dame, and upcoming
PSB gigs this autumn will also pay homage to the Thin White Duke era when the band will appear onstage in all-white outfits. “I don’t know how,” says Willgoose, “but I found some white corduroy – and it’s even got some sparkle in, for when the light show hits me.”
Find out more at www.publicservicebroadcasting.net.