Luke Branch isn’t aiming to give away who ‘Guttermouth’ is, and that ambiguity is where his latest single’s sharpness lies!
Best known as the frontman and songwriter of Asylums, and, more recently, as the co-composer of the score for this summer’s hit US film 40 Dates and 40 Nights starring Bailee Madison and Joel Courtney, Branch has spent the last two years carving out something entirely new. With his debut solo single, ‘Guttermouth’, he has taken the DIY ethos to its absolute extreme; one man, no committee, doing it all himself. Every instrument, every voice, every word. ‘Guttermouth’ arrives as a gritty, uncompromising statement of intent.
Recorded during solitary sessions at SS2 Recording in Southend-on-Sea alongside long-time friend and engineer Rees Broomfield, and expertly mixed by Dave Eringa (Manic Street Preachers, Wilko Johnson), the track crackles with an unmistakable raw energy. Even the striking cover art is Branch’s own creation. Squeezed into the stolen hours between running Cool Thing, scoring films, and fatherhood, it’s a record born from urgency, sounding vital because there was nobody looking over his shoulder.
Serving as the first taste of a much larger forthcoming body of work, ‘Guttermouth’ was released on Obtuse Records, a new subsidiary of Cool Thing established to house Branch’s solo output, spoken word, visual art, and soundtrack projects. Reflecting on the release, Branch shares: “I’m sure the world didn’t need a Luke Branch solo release, but I needed it. After years of making albums and touring, I wanted to be a student again, to take time out to learn, improve and experiment. This music was created in contrast to the film soundtrack work I was also doing at the time.”
The world might not have been explicitly asking for it, but now that it’s here, it’s hard to imagine going without it. Unfiltered, fiercely independent, and completely focused, ‘Guttermouth’ proves that when Luke Branch goes it alone, the noise is louder and sharper than ever.
