Credit: Adrian Vitelleschi Cook

Do Nothing announce debut album and release ‘Amoeba’

Tue 25 April 2023 14:34, UK

Do Nothing - 'Amoeba'

3.5

Cult Nottingham outfit Do Nothing have announced their long-awaited debut album, Snake Sideways, which arrives on June 30th. To stoke the excitement further, the quartet have released the single ‘Amoeba’, one of their most full-bodied cuts yet.

As is always the case with Do Nothing, bassist Charlie Howart provides the song with its centrepiece. Another robust, funk-inflected performance from the highly underrated player, it’s dynamic but ominous, commanding the track as it gradually segues from the rumbling verse into the catchy but off-kilter chorus. He bridges melody and the band’s penchant for the slightly jarring with panache, straying away from obvious musical choices, making for another entertaining listen.

Elsewhere, guitarist Kasper Sandstrøm is back with a handful of clever earworms and 1980s-inspired textures, filling in the holes Howart leaves but never overdoing it. Frontman Chris Bailey manages to augment Howart’s constant movement with a vocal delivery featuring his surreal sprechgesang in the verses and by touching on the ethereal in the chorus.

“As far as I remember ‘Amoeba’ is about my girlfriend leaving the house to go to work and be useful, and me laying on the sofa feeling dumb and watching annoying news on TV,” Bailey says of the track’s origins. “It muses about how the media decides what we all care about on a two-week rotation.”

Continuing: “Sometimes it feels like we all get angry about something for a few weeks until the TV decides it’s time for us to think about something else. It’s also about the fact that making music can often feel pretty unimportant; some folks are firefighters while I spend all my time massaging my own ego.”

It sounds like Do Nothing are pushing themselves into a new area on ‘Amoeba’, with more going on here than on their previous releases. That can only stand them in good stead for Snake Sideways. Find the tracklist for the album below.