With their UK headline tour starting next week, France’s Unschooling have just released their debut album ‘New World Artifacts’ via Bad Vibrations – purchase options HERE. It includes previous singles ‘Brand New Storm’, ‘Ribbon Road’, and ‘Excommunicated’.
Unschooling are a 5-piece outfit from Rouen, France, consisting of Damien Tebbal (bass), Vincent Fevrier (lead vocals/guitar), Paul Morvant (guitar), Marc Lebreuilly (synth/guitar) and Thomas Fromager (drums). Their debut album arrives following their 2021 ‘Random Acts Of Total Control’ EP and 2019’s ‘Defensive Designs’ tape. It’s a collection of lo-fi post-punk clocking in at 30 minutes, underscored with subtle pop melodies and structures but never far away from bouts of anarchic no-wave dissonance. Here, Unschooling claim loud and clear their desire to return to a sound which is less calibrated, less obvious. As they themselves write, “New World Artifacts is an ode to the unexpected, a tribute to many art rock bands who are always where you least expect them. It is both noisy and sensitive. Hot and cold at once.”
The album was recorded mostly live in just a few sessions at a farmer friend’s DIY studio located in the Normandy countryside in late Summer 2022. In a busy year of heavy European touring and festival appearances, Vincent Fevrier (guitar/vocals) recalls that the recording process was almost as chaotic as the music itself with band members heading into the studio late at night.
For a record that might be chaotic and experimentally-grounded, it’s above all else a fun and entertaining listen that never takes itself too seriously. It’s for this reason that the band have already been heralded as one of the most exciting up-and-comers in the new school of post-punk revivalists, playing to busy crowds and festival fields across the continent.
‘New World Artifacts’ might just mark them out as the best in class. The Brighton & Hove News caught up with the band at last year’s Great Escape festival when they played at Revenge on 14th May. We commented thus:
“Flying out of Rouen in France are Unschooling who clearly love alliteration- describing their sound as angular, anxious, and anguished. This sound is very much reflected in their new composition ‘Shopping On The Left Bank’ which arguably gives a nod to the feel of Half Man Half Biscuit’s ‘Trumpton Riots’ meets Beck’s ‘Devils Haircut’ meets Gang Of Four’s ‘At Home He’s a Tourist’. And their first album release (from back in 2019) follows this same pattern, being titled ‘Defensive Designs’. It has the guitar sound fighting against the beats in a way The Fall would have offered us. Today at Revenge we find them hypnotic, happy, and quite possibly habit-forming. Well worth a listen…”.
But you can decide for yourselves as they are set to play nine dates throughout the UK, with the closing show taking place here in Brighton at The Hope & Ruin on Wednesday 8th November, courtesy of local promoters Acid Box – Purchase your Brighton gig tickets HERE and HERE.
Unschooling UK tour dates:
31/10 – Southampton – Heartbreakers
01/11 – London – The Lexington (Supported by Butch Kassidy)
02/11 – Sheffield – Yellow Arch
03/11 – Manchester – YES
04/11 – Glasgow – The Great Western Festival*
(Warmduscher, Wu-Lu, Forest Swords, LYNKS, Chubby & the Gang, Fat Dog)
05/11 – Leeds – Brudenell Social Club (Supported by Snõõper)
06/11 – Bristol – Rough Trade Bristol (Supported by Kyoto Kyoto)
07/11 – Oxford – The Jericho Tavern
08/11 – Brighton – The Hope & Ruin
Tickets for all concert dates and further information on Unschooling can be located at linktr.ee/unschoolingband.
