Formed, curiously enough, on the day Mark E Smith left this Earth, Manchester trio Cold Water Swimmers recently celebrated their first birthday.
They chose to mark the occasion in typically pugnacious style with a show in a Salford boxing ring.
Now the hard-hitting three piece, featuring Chris Bridgett, of Dub Sex on vocals and guitar, with Carrie Lawson (Bass) and Selina Woolnough (Drums) are releasing a new double A-side Summer Breeze/I’ll Be Your Witness.
Both songs reveal a starker, more raw-edged sound than Bridgett’s recent work – most notably with previous outfit The G-O-D, with whom he supported The Stone Roses at Wembley in 2017.
Described somewhat perversely as a ‘redemption song,’ Summer Breeze opens with a throbbing bass riff from Lawson, before Bridgett’s cynical. world-weary vocal cuts in.
“I no longer listen to the words that you say/ They’re just words and I brush them away,” Bridgett sings dolefully, before going on to tackle familiar themes of social deprivation and isolation.
“I know that you’re scared/You feel paralysed.Caught In a hole you feel victimised/So when do you think they will realise?/It’s part of the plan to polarise.”
I’ll Be Your Witness is a cautionary tale about the power of language and how, as many on social media have found, our words can come back to haunt us.
A brooding, industrial, wash of guitar stokes feelings of paranoia as Bridgett takes his antagonist to task over past lies.
Both tracks are available for download and the band’s well crafted self-made videos can be viewed on youtube.
To support the release Cold Water Swimmers play the You Are Not Alone Festival in Manchester city centre on March 30 and the Salty Dog in Northwich on April 17.
- For more about Cold Water Swimmers checkout their links on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
- Download Summer Breeze and I’ll Be Your Witness via this link.
