Bleak Squad is a new Melbourne four-piece comprised of true Australian art-rock royalty.
Featuring Mick Turner (Dirty Three, Mess Esque), Mick Harvey (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey, The Birthday Party), Adalita (Magic Dirt), and Marty Brown (Art of Fighting, Clare Bowditch), the unlikely quartet unite for the first time on Bleak Squad's brooding, noir-rock debut LP, Strange Love, which has been shortlisted for the Australian Music Prize.
Born from spur-of-the-moment jam sessions, Strange Love sees all four members juggle multiple instruments, songwriting, their own idiosyncrasies, and lead vocal duties between Adalita and Harvey.
The result is a confident nine-song set of love, loss, and lonesomeness filled with fizzing guitars, slippery basslines, and the signature illogical squawk of Turners guitar. With Strange Love, Bleak Squad announce the boldest of entries into the Australian music landscape.
They should not be missed live: four Australian music greats with charisma to burn, uncanny chemistry, and a quality set of songs tailor-made for those long, dark nights of the soul.
Andrew Stafford, The Guardian