The tour will see Squid travel to North America for the fourth time following visits in November 2021, March 2022 and September 2022, and will commence in Austin, Texas on February 2nd 2024 and will conclude in Los Angeles, California on March 1st. The tour will be the first time Squid have the chance to showcase live performances of tracks from O Monolith for their American and Canadian fans.

North America we’re coming back. Tickets on sale Friday at 10am: https://t.co/OqnuoPfCSZ pic.twitter.com/uwiuTHqnXu

— Squid (@squidbanduk) April 18, 2023

The highly anticipated new album has already been performed live in the UK (see below) and will see a continuation of Squid’s experimentation with a multitude of differing rock genres. Speaking to NME, Ollie Judge, the group’s lead singer and drummer, states that the band have been “leaning a lot more into experimental song structures“, further adding that the album is “quite proggy – for better or worse“.

See O Monolith being performed live below:

Judging from their latest release, “Undergrowth“, “quite proggy” seems quite the understatement. An initial simple drumbeat and bassline is interrupted by a funky guitar section before Judge begins with his abstract lyrics, his vocals seemingly Hugh Cornwell-esque as we get into the chorus. The bassline returns along with the introduction of the brass and keyboards, and then returns the funk-rock of the guitars, and, slightly further on, a Black Midi-esque noise-rock section encapsulates us. All this and we are halfway through the six minute thirty five seconds song.

Watch the music video for “Undergrowth” below:

O Monolith will therefore be an expression of experimentation, blending together post-punk, art-rock, funk-rock and prog-rock to create an immaculate example of artistic brilliance.

Squid were formed in Brighton in 2016, releasing their first EP, Town Centre, in 2019 and their debut album, Bright Green Field, in 2021, the latter of which receiving widespread critical acclaim and reaching number four on the UK Albums Chart. The group consists of Ollie Judge on lead vocals and drums, Louis Borlase and Anton Pearson on both guitar and bass guitar, Arthur Leadbetter on keyboards and strings and Laurie Nankivell on brass.

Pre-order O Monolith now here.

See below for North American tour dates:

02/02/2024 – The Parish – Austin
03/02 – Dada – Dallas
05/02 – The Basement East – Nashville
06/02 – Terminal West – Atlanta
08/06 – 9.30 Club – Washington
09/02 – Union Transfer – Philadelphia
10/02 – Brooklyn Steel – Brooklyn
14/02 – Paradise Rock Club – Boston
15/02 – Sat – Montreal
16/02 – Phoenix Concert Theatre – Toronto
18/02 – Thalia Hall – Chicago
19/02 – Fine Line – Minneapolis
23/02 – Revolution Hall – Portland
24/02 – Rickshaw Theatre – Vancouver
25/02 – The Crocodile Showroom – Seattle
27/02 – Regency Ballroom – San Francisco
29/02 – The Observatory OC – Santa Ana
01/03 – The Belasco – Los Angeles

Buy tour tickets here.

New Symbols comprises eight layered tracks. The first track, Survive, epitomises what everyone is trying to do during this pandemic. Opening with a choral explosion of ethereal vocals, Vek injects an indie rock edge with riffy guitars and some heavy drums. 

Vek sings the determined lyrics “And we will survive/And we will survive/And I will take great steps/And we’ll be proved right”, words that resonate all the more deeply during this coronavirus climate. This theme continues when Vek sings: “We can survive/We can trust ourselves and win that fight”, conveying the importance of standing up against adversity and carrying on. 

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Chatting with NME about Survive, Vek said of the opening track: “those lyrics were written and recorded last year. It was just how I was feeling at the time. I took hold of the lyrics to make it a positive song. I was listening to it a few weeks into lockdown and the chorus ‘I know it’s hard to feel stuck in place’ made me nearly screenshot a notes app because I felt obliged to share this encouraging thing.”

Guilty Pleasure is a cacophony of percussion and keys. Wasting no time, Vek crams layer upon layer of drums and synthesised keys, singing about wanting to leave someone but being unable to: “You’re holding off, I don’t know when to leave/Now there are things you wanna know about me/And you don’t care, cos nobody cares”

The album moves between one instrumentally layered track to the next. From Slippery Fish, to Rolling You Down, to All The Time In The World, the genre-defying and multi-instrumental skills of Tom Vek become impossible to ignore. 

The closing track, Fountains Spit Your Name, gives the album a cathartic feel. It brings the projects’ themes, sounds, and ideas to a head. Vek’s mighty baritone soars above the instruments, melding together in a wonderful crescendo.

As well as treating us with a brand new album, Tom Vek has unveiled a new music playing device that he himself has personally designed. A “high-fi device” the Sleevenote is “the music player for album lovers”, according to Vek. 

Designed for music lovers, the Sleevenote “brings hi-definition, full fidelity album artwork to digital music”, pairing an album’s visuals with the full listening experience. In an official statement, Vek explained how he started work on Sleevenote around the same time as his fourth album, New Symbols. 

Vek explained that his love for music and technology have slowly joined together over time. Vek said: “Over the last few years I’ve been working as a designer and met a software developer. That’s what led to the Sleevenote project. The excitement of that coming together is what spurred me into getting the record finished. I was excited about it being so unusual for a musician, as my interests have grown into the design and product design because I need that extra excitement.”

New Symbols is out now. The full tracklisting for New Symbols is as follows: 

1. Survive
2. Guilty Pleasure
3. Slippery Fish
4. Rolling You Down
5. All The Time In The World
6. My Child
7. Washed Up On The Beach
8. Fountains Spit Your Name