About DITZ
Never Exhale is the sound of a band that hasn’t stopped for a breath.
DITZ have toured relentlessly since the release of their first album The Great Regression and even before that, travelling at least 100 days a year since COVID. The songs that form their newest offering were written across Europe, often on off days and in borrowed rehearsal rooms just to break up the long drives.
It could be said that the band treat recording and release of music as an afterthought. Often playing songs live years before their release, tweaking them as they go. The songs on the final record may change before they are ever heard as part of the album.
Formed in late 2015 and playing their first show the following summer, DITZ came together after vocalist C.A. Francis, guitarist Anton Mocock, and bassist Caleb Remnant, went to watch METZ and Lightning Bolt at Concorde 2 in Brighton, turning to each other and saying “let’s do that”. A few shows in they picked up current guitarist Jack Looker, although his original position was behind the drum kit, and released a few singles such as ‘Seeking Arrangement’, ‘Gayboy’ and ‘Total 90’. By summer 2019, the band arrived at its current line up with Sam Evans joining on drums, then embarked on their first proper headline tour at the start of 2020, completing it just before the world shut down.
They made use of this time wisely, holing up in the closed pub that Sam lived in and worked at to write parts of their first album. As soon as they could play shows again, they did, managing to get several tours including one dubbed “the brexit tour”, before the release of their debut album The Great Regression in 2022. “We got in a van and tried to play the most random small towns we could, often just to the opening bands and some regulars. It was character building trying to win over these audiences that really couldn’t give a shit. Winchester was a particular highlight.” Francis remarks.
After the album’s release things began to take off for the band, shows started selling out, both in the UK and Europe, publications such as Pitchfork, DIY, CLASH, Loud & Quiet, Under The Radar, FLOOD, Radio X, BBC6 Music, So Young, UPSET, and more praised the album, then they had to start thinking about writing another.
Never Exhale was largely recorded at Holy Mountain studios in London during a freezing cold January. The process was fraught with obstacles, as the original plan to record in Rhode Island was abandoned when DITZ were offered a support tour with IDLES. Although the album was still mixed by the originally intended engineer, Seth Manchester (Model/Actriz, Lingua Ignota, Big Brave). The result is a record hardened by the pressure of its own making. Laboured but not loved, and an album that reflects the sound of the road.
Album themes reveal themselves more on further listens. ‘Taxi Man’ is an exploration into what it would be like to weigh up your impact on the world, where the eponymous taxi man could be seen as a St Peter type figure or like Charon, ferrying the dead into the underworld. It was written in Cologne on the second day of a two-day songwriting session. The first day was a bust, and nothing was achieved outside of general frustration between the band members, with atmosphere soured by months on tour. This carried on the next day with members reluctantly arriving separately in dribs and drabs, and as if out of nowhere Looker came up with the central riff which was quickly strengthened by Remnant’s contribution. The lyrics came from a poem written by Francis in the taxi ride home the previous day.
Further on the album, themes are explored of unnecessary hatred and division in ‘Space/Smile’ and ‘It Smells Like Something Died In Here’. ‘Senor Siniestro’ looks at ageing, and in ‘The Body As A Structure’ the separation of the physical from an ingrained sense of reality. It’s political, but ultimately personal, more Genet and Kafka than Orwell or Huxley.
Sonically the album has its roots in the usual DITZ influences. Classic noise rock such as The Jesus Lizard and Shellac, as well as the obtuse post punk of the Fall – ‘Space/Smile’ in particular holds these references aloft with the initial demo being slower affair written by Remnant, revved up in the rehearsal room by the fury the track demanded.
The closing track ‘Britney’ could be compared to Radiohead or Mogwai, where Jack wrote the initial version of the instrumental on the weekend at home with family in an attempt to reconcile two different emotions. It was tentatively shared with the rest of the band, Looker believing they would pass on something so different from what they’ve previously released. He was wrong and they embraced the chance for experimentation with Francis’s lyrics reflecting the vulnerability of the instrumental.
Overall the album is a clear development from their first effort. A sign of things to come.
