Forget lockdown for 4 minutes, there’s a party going on at Dry Cleaning’s mini night club

Dry Cleaning video
(Image credit: 4AD)

Dry Cleaning have released their first song for new label 4AD.

Scratchcard Lanyard is the first new music from the south London quartet since the October release of their excellent Boundary Road Snacks And Drinks EP.

The song is described as “a treatise on the joy of life’s little pleasures, where air fresheners become mighty oaks and Instagram filters are glamourous holiday destinations.”

“In the search for your true calling in life, it’s easy to try so many things that you end up confused,” the band explain. “It can lead to an enormous build-up of frustration. You may fantasise about exacting revenge upon your real or imagined enemies. Ephemeral things and small-scale escapist experiences can provide some relief!”

The companion video for Scratchcard Lanyard marks the directorial debut of artist duo Rottingdean Bazaar whose concept and set design – riffing on the song’s celebration of the humdrum – inserts vocalist Florence Shaw into her own miniature night club. Rottingdean Bazaar are artists James Theseus Buck and Luke Brooks.

Dry Cleaning - Florence Shaw (vocals), Tom Dowse (guitar), Lewis Maynard (bass) and Nick Buxton (drums) – have now completed work on their debut album for 4AD. The quartet were recently forced to cancel their scheduled March 2021 UK tour due to ongoing concerns over the spread of coronavirus.

Dry Cleaning

(Image credit: Pooneh Ghana)
Paul Brannigan
Contributing Editor, Louder

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.