Forest Swords - Bolted (October 10, 2023)

1. Munitions
2. Butterfly Effect
3. Rubble
4. Night Sculpture
5. Caged
6. Tar
7. The Low
8. Chain Link
9. Hjope
10. End
11. Line Gone Cold

Forest Swords (aka electronic producer/composer Matthew Barnes) returns with a new album ‘Bolted’. Having spent the past few years working as an in-demand composer and sound designer – writing music for ballet, film and video games – 'Bolted' was recorded over the past year in a warehouse factory space in Barnes’ home city of Liverpool. Across its 11 tracks he dives deeper into his unique sonic vocabulary to weave together a set of tracks that sounds equally muscular and bleak, haunting and euphoric.

As ever in his music, melancholy and euphoria, monochrome and colour, past and future all feel ambiguous. Emotions shift from moment to moment, differences between digital and acoustic instruments more smeared than ever: a queering of time, space and sonics that feels equally playful and totally vital.

Alongside the announcement comes “The Low”, a moody, metallic trip hop single lifted from the album. Speaking on the track Barnes comments, "’The Low’ was based on a beat I’d originally intended for Yoko Ono, and features elements I made both at the start and end of the album, so ties together a lot of the sounds and emotions I was exploring during the writing process. The accompanying video directed with Sam Wiehl expands on some of my artwork and visual world that accompanies the record”.

“The Low” arrives shortly after the release of the “Butterfly Effect” single - part industrial electronica, part greyscale pop, shifting Forest Swords' world deeper into murkier, more paranoid territory, with a previously-unheard vocal sample by the legendary singer-songwriter Neneh Cherry. Upon its release the single received support from the likes of Pitchfork, FADER, DJ Mag, Stereogum, Clash, Line of Best Fit, Dork and more.

While his previous album – the acclaimed 'Compassion' released in 2017 – saw Barnes toy with widescreen technicolour, the world of ‘Bolted’ is tightly wound, taught, with a sense of aching urgency like never before. Fizzing deconstructed synths, heavily distorted mallets and marimbas bounce off clattering beats and foggy vocals, all balanced out with lightly dancing woodwind instruments; a layer of dust covering the surface of every track.

Elsewhere on ‘Bolted’ we hear 'Munitions' chugging industrial throb kick off the record, through to 'End's melancholy nostalgia, before plunging back into the psychedelic pounding of urgent closer 'Line Gone Cold', a rumination on grief with a signoff from the late Lee Scratch Perry.

Defiant, desolate, and darkly beautiful: 'Bolted' cements Forest Swords as one of the most remarkable and singular voices working in electronic music. The album will be released on the 20th October on Ninja Tune. 

https://forestswords.bandcamp.com/album/bolted

samples don’t sound too promising to be honest. always liked his album on tri angle. 

Never been into this guy's stuff. The singles all sound a bit samey. I like the natural sounding beats he uses though but I don't know if this album will win me over.

I liked his Compassion LP quite a bit. Will definitely be giving this at least a few spins.

Quite different from his previous output. More uptempo, almost dancefloor friendly. Tribal dub perhaps? I like it!

Will have to check this out, enjoyed his Tri Angle album a lot as well, but I'm always bit aprehensive or skeptical when a new artist breaks through with 1 or 2 good albums and immediately fucks off to do soundtrack/installation/hired gun production work for years. Its like a boxer being out of the game too long, it seems to dull the instincts. Im a bit worried about the new Haxan Cloak album too for this reason.

I remember seeing Forest Swords at Field Day 2017 and I remember being a bit surprised that his live show was him with a guitar (maybe even a fender strat) strapped to him, playing parts over the top of backing tracks of his latest album. He was ok tho.