BIG RAIN

7 Black Vinyl + Insert. Bingo Fury music is a masterwork in atmosphere. Littered with monochrome characters in hazy settings Bingo Fury conjures a glitzy altogether seedy Broadway sheen with introductory single Big Rain released via Ra-Ra Rok Records. The closing-time cabaret of Big Rain starts as a sombre noir piano ballad telling an indistinct tale of alienation on a Bristol street in his hometown. But the haze soon lifts giving way to a ramshackle swing as Bingo surrenders to a cocky self-assuredness I can be anything. Words as stark as they ought to be / You think you do / You don t pray for me. The track was produced by John Parish (PJ Harvey Aldous Harding Dry Cleaning) at J&J Studios in Bingo s home city of Bristol. Much of the Bingo Fury project was conceived on early-hour walks around Bristol during the first lockdown. Suddenly bereft of it s dynamic culture Bingo saw a blank canvas where he could play out his internal monologues. The music video is similarly unsettling: entirely unpredictable coming to light from lurking in the shadows. Max McLachlan who directed the video offered: From the first second of hearing the track the dusty world Bingo inhabits leapt out to me visually. He sounded at his most comfortable hunched over a piano in a small dank apartment but just as the music suddenly yanks pushes and pulls Bingo along with it I wanted the world of the video to fall out from underneath him. As the lyrics and tone of the song repaint Bingo s west country hometown through a romanticised neo-noir prism we show him chasing fragments of the world he belongs to while reality creeps around him. Although very much a solo songwriter Bingo s compositional process relies on contributions from his entire band - bassist Megan Jenkins and drummer Henry Terrett have been playing together since their teens. In one of their various incarnations they recruited local avant-jazz legend cornet player Harry Iceman Furniss with guitarist and percussionist Rafi Cohen later completing the line-up. Influenced by classic songwriters as much as pioneers of alternative experimentation the songs can often land like a jazz standard that got lost multiple times on it s journey to the present day. Some pit stops are obvious: the haunting balladry of Nina Simone and Leonard Cohen and the arresting no-wave of James Chance and The Lounge Lizards. Bingo Fury s name is pulled straight from one of his lyric sheets a perfect representation of the on-the-nose mystique surrounding the project: what you see is what you get but what it means is far less certain. Bingo Fury has also announced a run of live and festival dates see below for full list. Live Dates 2-5.09 End of the Road Wiltshire 22.09 Crofters Bristol W/ Famous 26.09 Heartbreakers Southampton W/ Famous 27.09 Prince Albert Brighton W/ Famous 06.10 Servant Jazz Quarters London.