Post-punk legends MEMBRANES release new single ‘Borders Blurred’ – Listen Now

Post-punk legends MEMBRANES release new single 'Borders Blurred' - Listen Now
Photo by John Middleham

In 2019, post-punk legends Membranes returned with a career-defining album, the wonderfully ambitious “What Nature Gives, Nature Takes Away”. The album’s release heralded their most successful period since reforming in 2009 around the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival. Critical acclaim, festival dates in the UK and a European tour with Mark Lanegan helped re-position the band as one of the most important and enduring presences in post-punk music of the last 40 years.

Founder member and frontman John Robb explains the new single… “this song “Borders Blurred” should have been on the ‘What Nature Gives…Nature Takes Away’ album, but we just couldn’t finish it. After a radical re-haul, it now feels fresh and new and reflects these times where cultural borders are truly blurred, whilst also being a song about dislocation and being an astronaut floating in space looking back at the end of times of the planet Earth.”

Listen to ‘Borders Blurred’ – BELOW:

Membranes have just re-issued a double-LP vinyl set of “What Nature Gives, Nature Takes Away”, available from their Bandcamp store.

Formed in 1978 in Blackpool, England, Membranes play classic bass-driven Northern post-punk music and were part of the same world that produced groups like Joy Division, The Fall, Cabaret Voltaire, Bauhaus and Sisters Of Mercy, all inspired by the punk explosion of 1977 to launch their own idiosyncratic journeys. The band released a remarkable series of records throughout the ‘80s that combined their small-town frustration with a love of heavy bass and distortion.

This ultimately became a prime influence on such American noiseniks as Steve Albini, Swans and Sonic Youth. The group reformed in 2009 at the request of My Bloody Valentine to play the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival, and have since made two highly acclaimed albums, 2015’s “Dark Matter/Dark Energy” and 2019’s “What Nature Gives…Nature Takes Away”, inspired by newer bands like Godspeed You Black Emperor, Mogwai, Ulver and Wardruna, bands who distort the rock music template to create a personalised atmosphere and mood. Membranes frontman/bassist John Robb is an acclaimed British musician/author/publisher and TV/radio commentator. He is the editor-in-chief of the British music website Louder Than War and the author of the celebrated non-fiction work ‘Punk Rock: An Oral History’.

John Robb has also just launched the Green Britain Academy with Dale Vince from Ecotricity with the aim of creating up to 700,000 green and eco apprenticeships in the UK. He has also just launched Borders Blurred – a gaming, music and multimedia crossover agency named after the Membranes song.

Membranes play two headline shows:
Nov 19th: London Oslo
Nov 20th: Manchester Deaf Institute

Xsnoize Author
Mark Millar is the founder of XS Noize and looks after the daily running of the website as well as hosting interviews for the weekly XS Noize Podcast. Mark's favourite album is Achtung Baby by U2.

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