Credit: Harry Steel
Today, Bristol’s SCALER return with their first new music since their 2023 double A-side Daniel Avery-produced single “Loam / New Symbols”. The new track “Broken Entry” follows the band’s recent signing to tastemaker label Black Acre (home to Commodo, Sully, Karen Nyame KG, Waldo’s Gift, Crimewave, and more), and lands as they come to the end of an extensive EU tour alongside And So I Watch You From Afar and Robocobra Quartet.
Having formed in 2017 with a desire to pair their hometown’s visionary, off-kilter dance music to the more organic instrumentation you might find in the city’s burgeoning, heavy avant-garde scene, SCALER have since won all manner of plaudits at radio, press and through fervent word-of-mouth for both their eclecticism on record and for the pummelling intensity of their live performances, which have seen them play everywhere from Glastonbury to a packed-out headline slot at ArcTanGent, as well as performances at Boomtown, Green Man, End Of The Road, ADE, Nuits Sonores, and many more.
Having already released a debut album (“Void”) to widespread acclaim – including end of year mentions from Bleep, Rough Trade, and more – the band have already found fans in everyone from Mogwai to Squid, Object Blue, Laurel Halo, and many more, who have all given them the remix treatment. In this vein, the latest double single release saw SCALER lean further into their dance-based influences, earning a spot on the BBC Radio 6 Music playlist for their heady combination of uncompromising industrial percussion, throbbing bass, glitchy leftfield samples, and colossal synth lines.
“Broken Entry ” sees the band push further into this club mobilising sound, merging sinister synths with driving rhythmic bass and frenetic beats, before mutating into a crushing nu-metal tinged breakdown section. Recorded by Alfie-Tyson-Brown (one time member of SCALER’s live band) at The Louisiana, and mixed by long-time collaborator Sean Oakley (Kae Tempest, Frank Ocean, James Blake, Black Sabbath), the track is as much a nod to the euphoric, chest-beating call of the dancefloor as it is the frenzied energy of the circle pit. Speaking on the track, the band says: “After a year spent locked away in various windowless rooms, Broken Entry is our first offering from the next era of SCALER. We wanted to blow the cobwebs off before we show you what we’ve been up to.”
WATCH / SHARE THE VISUALISER FOR “BROKEN ENTRY” HERE
As the band come to the end of their current tour, “Broken Entry” is a signifier of what lies ahead for SCALER. Speaking on their recent signing, Black Acre founder Ian Merchant says: “Is there a better way to announce our return to making records than signing our favourite Bristol band? SCALER have been part of our lives as fans for years so it’s an honour to welcome them to the Black Acre family. The band has always defied genre, but this new material ups the ante with sheer ambition, and we are hyped to work on a project with no ceiling.
“BROKEN ENTRY” IS OUT NOW STREAM HERE
LIVE DATES:
24th April – Nantes, France – Le Ferrailleur
25th April – Lille, France – L’Aéronef
2nd August – Bristol, UK – Queens Square supporting IDLES
CONNECT WITH SCALER:
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SELECTED PRESS FOR SCALER:
“Bristol’s next national breakthrough” The Guardian
“Rave-ready bangers from Bristol techno-metal heavyweights.” NME
“Brutalist, unsettling and pulverising, SCALER have carved out their distorted blend of genres with a sharp intensity that’s helped them drum up a reputation as one of the most incendiary live acts in the UK.” The Line of Best Fit
“SCALER achieve perfect synergy between intensity and precision. With rigorous control, they choreograph chaos.” Pitchfork
“While some club kids are content to use the dancefloor as an escape from the worries of the world, SCALER won’t let you check those burdens at the door. They want the rage to fuel you.” Bandcamp (Album of the Day)
“This isn’t standard-issue effervescent dance music. Falling on the harder side of the electronic spectrum and hitting in the way that only really heavy chords can.” Billboard
“Pulsing, darkly danceable reverie” The FADER
“They shred any fabric of formal music making into absolute bits” Jack Saunders, BBC Radio 1
“Absolutely massive. Little bit industrial, very full on, very loud.” Matt Wilkinson, Apple Beats 1 Radio
“Heavy hitting!” Mary Anne Hobbs, BBC 6Music
“Void is a record that writhes, contorts and throbs like a live show. Claustrophobic yet huge – it’s the sound of a rave crammed into a sticky, dark basement.” CRACK
“heavy with lurid and dazzling detail” The Wire
“With so much tasteful and overproduced dance music out there, this band’s scuzzy and rough-edged noise is a shot in the arm.” DJ Mag
“Something wholly new… and wholly unholy.” Loud & Quiet