Big Red’s latest single ‘Mission St.’ roars, grooves and swirls with fuzz-drenched chords ahead of debut album ‘Big Sur’ coming October 30th.

Big Red (the solo writing project of Joseph Scarisbrick of The Orchestra (For Now) have released their ‘Mission St.’ single alongside the announcement of a debut album, titled ‘Big Sur‘, and a headline tour.

TO(FN)’s anxious but powerful crescendos deal in the careful construction and release of tension. Yet, whether it is between gentle and roaring instrumental sections, or lyrics exploring loss, disassociation, and youth, coupled with the cathartic jubilation of the song’s sound world, ‘Mission St.’ is certainly a work of starker contrasts.

It opens with a rolling groove stitched together with Charlie Hancock’s deft snare drum patterns and subtle interjections from Millie Kirby’s bass. The guitar part rambles in the language of Americana, fingerpicking a swirling line before it erupts into fuzz-drenched chords.

“I’m alive and so are you, except you’re barely here”, sings Scarisbrick with his signature grain. The line he follows this up with: “Here we are now, always the same with this guy” feels beautifully transduced from a hushed word amongst friends into the soaring fry of Scarisbrick’s vocals.

The band then leans into a diminished chord before resolving into the original groove, where Scarisbrick declares “I want it all again”, with a palpable breathiness enduring from the exhaustive fallout of the previous section. I love that they kept this moment in – a glimpse of supposed imperfection that invigorates the song’s arrangement and thematic material.

I get something of Neutral Milk Hotel from this release. Their exploration of the intersections between folk music and behemoth guitar sounds is something I can’t wait to hear more of on the album on 30th October.

Listen to ‘Mission St.‘ here:

Catch Big Red at the following:

5th Sep – End Of The Road Festival
24 Oct – Brighton, Mutations Festival
10 Nov – Edinburgh, Sneaky Pete’s
11 Nov – Leeds, Hyde Park Book Club
13 Nov – Bristol, Ears to the Ground
14 Nov – Manchester, Mood Swings
15 Nov – Sheffield, Washington
18 Nov – Brighton, Rossi Bar
19 Nov – London, Greyhound
20 Nov – Southampton, Heartbreakers

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