Batbait Digging Up the Garden
Nearly three years after their much-loved debut, “Dirty Clothes”, Zurich’s DIY-art-quartet Batbait return with album number 2. Sporting a rather fabulous cover, “Working in the Garden” is hitting the streets with the help of Irascible Records.
Batbait began when a teacher at Zurich’s art school ZHdK challenged Gianna Brühwiler (guitar, vox) and Sandra Keller (guitar, vox) to prepare a short set for the 2019 graduation party. Naturally, they rose to the challenge and informed an astonished Simona Bischoff that she would be their bass player the moment she returned from a trip to China. Drummer Alanah Rüttimann, meanwhile, was recruited via Instagram. Their anything-goes ethic soon bore fruit, making them the winners of the rock category as well as the main “demo of the year” award at the 2021 m4music Demotape Clinic.
What separates Batbait from many similarly-minded bands is their willingness to turn conventions upside down and experiment with textures and sound from the very beginning rather than starting off with easy to play, straight down-the-line 4/4 post punk rock. They also made sure to have fun with videos, visual presentation and merchandise whilst at the same time taking great care of detail. “Working in the Garden” continues along those lines with undimmed elan. Thus, the album starts with a near-ambient seven-minute piece of ruminative sound texture entitled “Liquid Surface” which only develops into some kind of song halfway through. Just as thrillingly baffling is “oOoOoOo”, 3 1/2 minutes of strange distorted guitar sound waves which are immediately followed by the raucous “Dirty Socks”. Splendid stuff all round.
