‘Still overwhelming’ – Pitchfork

The Twilight Sad announce details of their new long-player ‘No One Can Ever Know’, the follow-up to 2009’s acclaimed break-through ‘Forget The Night Ahead’. ‘No One Can Ever Know’ is released across all formats on 6th February 2012, full tracklist as follows: ‘Alphabet’/ ‘Dead City’/ ‘Sick’/ ‘Don’t Move’/ ‘Nil’/ ‘Don’t Look At Me’/ ‘Not Sleeping’/ ‘Another Bed’/ ‘Kill It In The Morning’.

Already flagged by the widely leaked ‘Kill It In The Morning’ and forthcoming first single proper, ‘Sick’ (November 14th), ‘No One Can Ever Know’ marks a sonic shift for The Twilight Sad. Freshly inspired by a listening diet of Caberet Voltaire, Liars, Magazine, Autechre, Banshees, Fad Gadget, PiL and Can, a synth-heavy sound characterizes ‘No One Can Ever Know’, a record thematically akin to ‘Holy Bible’ era Manics, ‘Violator’-era Depeche Mode and ‘The Downward Spiral’ -era Nine Inch Nails.

“We wanted to be a lot more spontaneous, get outside our comfort zone - not to fall back into repeating what we've done previously”, explains guitarist Andy MacFarlane. “So we moved to London for a month to record at The Pool and got Andrew Weatherall involved to bounce ideas off and to generally reassure us of the direction we were already progressing in – toward a sparser sound, with a colder, slightly militant feel.”

Under the guidance of Weatherall the band experimented with vintage analogue synths - borrowed from Ben Hillier – to work on the core sounds they wanted, finding inspiration too in the distinctive production style of innovators like Martin Hannett and Conny Plank. For the first time the drums were also recorded separately utilising a lot of synthetic effects which allowed for the easy manipulation of the sounds and samples later in the process. Stylistically, the guitars tend to refract John McGeogh (Magazine/ Banshees) or Keith Levene (PiL) rather than the 'wall of sound' approach that defined The Twilight Sad’s previous recordings.

Lyrically ‘No One Can Ever Know’ finds singer James Graham on typically ominous form, delivering lightning bolts of malevolent threat. “I’ll find you - don’t worry” he promises on forthcoming single, ‘Another Bed’ - The Twilight Sad’s most radical and anthemic moment yet, it’s driving disco motorik and glacial keys pushing a dizzy emotional uplift.

Nationwide dates in November:

13 Sun DUNDEE Doghouse
14 Mon ABERDEEN Tunnels
15 Tue INVERNESS Ironworks
16 Wed EDINBURGH Bongo Club
18 Fri GLASGOW Sleazys
19 Sat PRESTON Mad Ferret
20 Sun YORK Duchess
21 Mon LONDON Borderline
22 Tue OXFORD Jericho
23 Wed LEICESTER Firebug
24 Thu HULL Adelphi
25 Fri STIRLING Tolbooth

www.thetwilightsad.com

Lyrics - James Alexander Graham
Music - Andy MacFarlane
Drums/Programming - Mark Devine
Produced by The Twilight Sad
Anti-Produced by Andrew Weatherall
Engineering, Mix & Additional Production: Jim Anderson

Recorded & Mixed in London, January - March 2011