Alex Edkins of METZ and Graham Walsh of Holy Fuck have formed Noble Rot and will release their debut album Heavenly Bodies, Repetition, Control on March 24 via Joyful Noise Records. Check out album art and tracklist below.

Edkins and Walsh first worked together when the latter was tapped to mix METZ’s debut album and have been friends since. They made this record together over the last year. The first single is “Casting No Light,” which draws from a variety of komische and post-punk influences. Think Can and Neu! by way of Wire and Beak> and you’re in the ballpark. Speaking of, Wire‘s Colin Newman and his partner Malka Spigel (Minimal Compact) play on this song as well. Check out the animated video by John Smith below.

The No Rot album is part of Joyful Noise’s White Label Series that “taps influential curators to shine a light on a previously unreleased album of their choice.” In this case it was No Joy‘s Jasamine White-Gluz who brought Noble Rot to their attention. “Graham Walsh and Alex Edkin’s new musical partnership captures what I love most about their other musical endeavors (Holy Fuck, Metz); expansive production, musical moments of anxiety and calmness, unexpected earworms,” says Jasamine. “I love records like this that make me go ‘how did they make that sound?!’ and relisten to a song over and over.”

Other 2023 White Label Series curators include Julien Baker, Sean Ono Lennon, Helado Negro, David Yow (Jesus Lizard), Sadie Dupuis (Speedy Ortiz, sad13).

Noble Rot
1. Suspension
2. Casting No Light
3. Empire of Iceboxes
4. Medicine
5. Come Up for Air
6. Pictures from the Institution
7. The Desert
8. Light at the Edge of the World