Release Date: June 11, 2021 (Streaming & Download)

Recorded in London by Late TV.
Mixed by Ed Longo at Soundrays Studio, Berlin. 
Artwork by The Drawing Supremacy.

Night Tennis

Well some stories start badly and end ambiguously.
This is one of those.

She was nice, a bit too nice for Steven.
But he’d made the effort to come out for the evening.
So he thought “well why should I be leaving?”

She asked for a high strength lager, but the bar said they had none,
so she asked for a Pimms instead, and he said;
“I see you’re a woman of contrast, you’re kind of fun”.

She told him that she worked in a bar,
but not the kind you’d take a date.
She's not allowed a boyfriend, and sometimes not a break.
And the other girls bitch about all the tips she makes.

And she told him, her family they had sent her to the place that they'd come from, ‘cos they wanted her see just why they had to run.
And she was going to keep on running.

And she’s got dreams!
Dreams to rent a bedroom that she doesn’t have to share.
With another girl who makes it clear she wishes she wasn’t there.

Steve’s like; "Thats quite a story I’ve really got to say. So you share a bedroom? Is she going to be there today? No no no thats not what I was getting at, or trying to say… oh well I guess I’ll see you around anyway."

So he wondered to himself as he sadly walked away.
All about that woman just trying to catch a break, in a town that takes from her with both hands while smiling to her face.
Well I hope she keeps on running ’til she runs this whole damn place.

Night Tennis

Late TV continue their grooving exploration of the Human Condition and it’s nuanced complexities that they artfully established on their previous single ‘Night Tennis’. This time changing up the gears from a laidback cruise through the greasy night to a rip-roaring banger that’s already hit the cocktails is impatiently demanding another, and another and another.

The band strut straight in with a stomping beat and a bass groove dances around melodic synth lines, while howling harmonized guitars urgently pull us onto the dance-floor and into the story. 

Lyricist & Vocalist Luke J Novak explains; “I initially wrote this song to be a Tom Waits style drunken waltz, in the style of ‘Invitation To The Blues’, but the band weren’t having it. Martin (Keyboards) suggested making it more of a Prince style Funk-New Wave crossover track, and amazingly it all just fell into place, it’s still theatrical, but there’s more urgency, more drama.” 

Once again we follow a hopeful romantic on a night out, only whereas on ‘Night Tennis’ they found thoughtful solace through their thwarted advances, on ‘Fools Fools Fools’ our protagonist’s lust fuelled desperation runs headlong into wall of ambivalence only to constantly repeat the process despite its bruising futility. 

The tension builds to a boiling point only to give way to moment clarity where our hapless suitor momentarily reflects on why they keep returning for more punishment.

Fools Fools Fools

A hastily recorded version Tazmin / Glow Beets track 'Tokyo After Dark' as part of the the BBC Introducing 'Cover Roulette' series where artists have a week to re-work each other songs.

Tokyo After Dark (Tazmin / Glow Beets Cover for BBC 'Cover Roulette' )

Late TV slide into 2022 with a pumped-up reworking of Edwyn Collins’s legendary ‘A Girl Like You’, an impassioned song of sexual reverance and yearning. References to dirty hands and starlets from a bygone era fit perfectly into the nocturnal aesthetic set-up by the Late TV’s recent output, and this bouncing, disco-esque, jazzed-up version is their gift to you on Valentines Day.  (On Streaming Services 14th Feb 2022).

A Girl Like You

On their single ‘Fools Fools Fools’ Late TV used punk-funk energy to illustrate a visceral emotional response to romantic frustrations. ‘I Like To Hear That Bird Sing’ tackles similar dilemmas of the heart but rather than bouncing into them with headstrong abandon, it takes a different approach; drifting along on a haze in the breezy style of a soulful yacht-rock ballad. The soundscape is bubbling with humming synthesizers reminiscent of Ned Doheny’s iconic ‘Get It Up For Love’ and glistening guitars that shimmer like the chrome of a vintage car on a bright hot day. This blissed-out slow-jam is punctuated by abrupt turnarounds, sudden slices of metallic New Wave influenced by The Police, in particular Andy Summer’s chiming guitar work. These moments are designed to slap the listener out of the trance, like a tremor through your body as you drift off to sleep, or as if the aforementioned car has cruised onto the roadside rumble-strips when the driver loses focus. The song's narrator gradually succumbs to the notion that the object of their desire is lost, as the music builds incrementally, eventually overflowing into a warm sea of swirling jazzy synthesizers, like Roy Ayers ‘Sunshine' breaking through the clouds. Recorded by the band, beautifully mixed by Ed Longo (Applied Arts Ensemble) and mastered at the famous  Abbey Road Studios, ‘I Like To Hear That Bird Sing’ is Late TV’s most sophisticated outing to date, taking us on a hazy drive into a setting sun, awash in its bittersweet glow.

I Like To Hear That Bird Sing

The house band of a late night chat show for people who dont sleep at night.

LATE T.V.