Flip Top Head - 'Intro 98'
What a way to hurl yourself into 2024 - Flip Top Head crashed into our ears with their chaotic but euphorically brilliant new single ‘Intro 98’.
Pairing the track as part of a double release with Blitzcat Records - the haunting track blends together sounds of Cocteau Twins, Tindersticks and Black Country New Road. Encompassing cascading post-rock headiness, frolicing indie-folk and waltzing lyrical dramas, this latest set of releases confirms Flip Top Head’s self-styled brand of ‘Orchestral Cult Rock’ as equal parts diverse and compelling; a musical phantasm where mystery, disjointedness, power and fragility collide with the motions of sliding trombones, cavernous soundscapes and compelling spoken word.
Writing ‘1st July 2006’ “after a night with a bottle of whisky and Songs of Love and Hate by Cohen on repeat on the turntable.”, leading the release is ‘Intro ‘98’. The track stands as the first the band wrote together, and lyrically explores, with its various voices, the struggles of fresh beginnings, and the quest for authenticity, as vocalist Bowie Bartlett herself explains:
“The intro lyrics were originally used in an old song, ‘Screaming Joe’ - versing on owning, wearing and ruining the coat of a lost loved one. We don’t play that song anymore but we carry the life of ‘Screaming Joe’ over in Intro 98.. Bertie’s lyrics came as a reflection of the motions and the fear and anxiety of starting a new project; digesting the new musical dynamic balance internally and the shift of roles and ideas to create something new - positively speaking. It’s also about my own struggles of how to project
