First, they hit us with the ARIA award-winning album Alien, which contained deep within it the instant fan-favourite cut ‘4D’. Then came the official remix release, the tongue-in-cheek titled 5G. Now, a testament to the endless replay power of the album, Northlane have today announced a long-awaited acoustic EP set for release on Friday, 21st May via UNFD.
Sticking to the release’s naming convention, the EP is set to be as labelled; a distilled, minimal and two-dimensional take on the 2018 album with inclusions ‘Sleepless’, ‘Enemy Of The Night’, ‘4D’, ‘Bloodline’ and the maiden release from 2D, ‘Rift’, streaming below.
Rather than merely recreating the same song sans the distortion pedal, 2D is a worthy study of its source work, reimagining the songs with purpose, creating an entirely new listening experience and in so doing, unearthing a deeper listening experience. Now void of the smoke and mirrors, 2D allows the inimitable vocals of Marcus Bridge to cut through like never before.
“Recording an acoustic EP is something that we’ve wanted to do for quite some time and felt right with the personal nature of the songs from Alien,” says Bridge. “I wanted to strip these songs back to the bare minimum to juxtapose the soundscapes of the album, a 2D version of sorts. A song like ‘Rift’ has a completely different energy in this context and took on new meaning with the recording in the depths of lockdown, now almost feeling like a cry of frustration and despair.”
We would be remiss to not point you back to Bridge’s brilliant acoustic live-streamed performance during last year’s lockdown, which is a true taste test of what awaits us on the EP — that is, more stripped-back brilliance. Both 2D and 5G will now be available via a limited run of exclusive 12-inch coloured LP offerings. Best to get onto the pre-order of that, or risk getting your fingers bit.
With their new single ‘Clockwork’ streaming up a storm, and the band’s forthcoming headline set at Full Tilt Festival soon upon us, there’s a certain electricity surrounding the Northlane camp right now. Safe to say, all those who consider themselves peers of the 3x ARIA award-winning band should feel an all too human chill right about now.
