After a succession of different line-ups, Benefits have now settled as a two-piece made up of Hall and electronic virtuoso Robbie Major. 'We're still angry' says Hall, 'just angry in a different way to before. If the previous record was black and white, we wanted this to be technicolour. 'The first taste of this new musical direction came in the form of 'Land of the Tyrants', which saw the band delving into bass-heavy, dance inflected rhythms and subtle industrial undercurrents. Follow-up single 'Relentless' featured The Libertines' Peter Doherty and saw the band move further into ambient electronic atmospherics. Doherty is just one of the collaborators on the new record, Zera Tonin, the singer of queer pop-electro duo Arch Femmesis, Neil Cooper of Therapy?, and Middlesborough rapper Shakkall make cameos. In addition to the guest musicians, the album also features production from James Welsh (Phantasy Sound), and James Adrian Brown (ex-Pulled Apart By Horses) who helped to guide the new direction. The result is an album that gleans as much from the likes of Underworld and Leftfield as it does the likes of The Streets or Beastie Boys in their pomp, or even the '90s/early '00s indie sleaze-era.
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