The New Madness - After Hours (2020) [Hi-Res]

Since their inception, The New Madness have been shrouded in mystery. Despite several singles on their musical CV, 500'000+ streams on seminal single Lovesick, and several high-profile sync placements, no-one has had a clue as to who (or w h a t) is behind the music. Now, we can reveal that The New Madness is the brainchild of Berlin-based, Danish-born multi-instrumentalist Bjarke Sorensen. With the Dane in front, The New Madness has quite an international cast of characters from Germany, Canada and France - Simeon Loth (guitar), Alex Cummings (drums) and Elie Granger (synth). With their roots firmly planted in the ground between garage rock and revisionist blues rock in the tradition of Jon Spencer's Blues Explosion, The New Madness have a minimalist, cut-to-the-bone approach to their craft. Think Junior Kimbrough and early The Black Keys, coupled with the heroic rock'n'roll of Jet and The Hives, where the raw edges are supported by a centre of solid, absolutely modern low end. Each song The New Madness releases is catchier than the last. Within its initial 30 seconds, lead single "Love Me Like A Bad Girl" feels like the sonic equivalent to powersliding around a sharp corner at 200km/h, and it doesn't take any longer than that for the guitar riff motif to lodge itself firmly in the memory banks behind your inner ear. It's a piece of high-octane garage rock with an unusually tight low-end. The song is heavy and fast, sexy and electric. "Every song on the album was a melody I couldn't get out of my head for a period of time. If I finish a song, it's because I think it's great; otherwise it falls by the wayside at some point in the creative process,"says frontman Bjarke S?rensen"And all of the songs on After Hours have passed this test."