Walt Disco: The Warping
Written on both sides of the Atlantic, from Los Angeles and Austin to Glasgow and London, The Warping is a significant step forward from Glasgow’s Walt Disco, a band who have already seen strong success with their debut album Unlearning. On The Warping, deft lyricism takes in deeply personal issues and writes them large, transposing feelings of envy, fear, joy and hope out of individual experiences. Yearning for another self is a recurring dream on The Warping, as they explore gender dysphoria and envy with radical honesty, accepting them as two tangled threads in the same experience.
Taking the cinematic glam of their debut and pushing it further, the band brought in classically trained orchestral musicians. Sonically, the horns, woodwind and swelling string sections lend an entirely new level to the Walt Disco sound – one that feels both fantastically organic and technically accomplished. While the foundations were laid during pre-album recording sessions at Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music’s studio the songs themselves largely come together in collaboration. The Warping was co-produced by the band and Chris McCrory, with engineering from The Vale studios’ Chris D’Adda, and the instrumentation is almost entirely analogue.
Speaking about the new album the band explain “With The Warping we explore themes of change, growth and dealing with the complex struggles that feature in anyone’s life. It feels like our most biographical body of work yet, listening to it now is like looking at a snapshot of a moment in time for us as people and as a band. This album is a roadmap of our vulnerabilities in a way, but it feels good to be so honest with our music and lay everything on the table with both our lyrics and arrangements. That acceptance of one’s emotions and honesty with oneself is what we’d hope people can take away from listening to The Warping.“
