Peter Brewis announces new album, Blowdry Colossus

NOTE: Due to a slight delay in the vinyl pressing process, the Blowdry Colossus release date has been moved back to 6th October. APOLOGIES!

On 22nd September, Daylight Saving Records will release Blowdry Colossus, the new solo album by Field Music’s Peter Brewis. The record is Peter’s first solo venture since 2008’s The Week That Was and follows collaborative albums with Paul Smith (on 2014’s Frozen By Sight) and Sarah Hayes (on 2019’s You Tell Me). The album was recorded over the last year at the Field Music studio in Sunderland, and features contributions from Peter’s brother David, Sarah Hayes and Peter’s son Alexander.

The mostly-instrumental album takes cues from the knowing exotica of Yellow Magic Orchestra, the quizzical tunefulness of Thelonious Monk and the pastoral abstractions of Penguin Cafe Orchestra. And like Kraftwerk’s records of the mid and late-70s, this is synthesizer music as art music rather than dance music. But where Kraftwerk took the melodic purity of Schubert and gave it a chilly formality, on Blowdry Colossus, Peter takes the same elevation of melody and plunges it into a kind of playful chaos, heavy with rhythmic ingenuity.

“I wanted to make something where the music was the focus.” says Peter, “With songs, the lyrics tend to carry the meaning: ‘This song is about…’. I wanted the music to be the meaning – the melodies, harmonies, sounds, structures.”

The first track taken from the album is Lemoncadabra. You can hear it now on your preferred streaming service and right here. And you can pre-order the album on CD or vinyl through the Daylight Saving Records Bandcamp and at all your favourite record shops.

The Week That Was / 15th Anniversary Remaster

For Record Store Day 2023, we remastered, repressed and reissued Peter’s 2008 meisterwerk The Week That Was on clear vinyl. We’ve now put the remaining copies up for sale on the Field Music Bandcamp so if you didn’t manage to get a copy on RSD, now’s your chance.

John Monroe & Field Music – Driving

Say hello to “Driving”, the second song from the upcoming John Monroe & Field Music EP, Songs from the Shelf. Much like opener Sleeping on the Floor, Driving takes place where nerves are frayed, sighs are deep and fingernails are bitten to the bone; a late night rant where you might hear echoes of Nilsson at his most brandy-soaked, looking for catharsis in most of the wrong places, but also finding at least a bit in the pounding of a piano’s keys.

Listen now at the Daylight Saving Records Bandcamp page, where you can also pre-order the EP.

The song should also be up on your favourite streaming service. It might be one of these: https://lnk.to/drivingmonroe

Read about the EP here.