THE NINTH WAVE have returned with a brooding new single called ‘Happy Days!’.

After the success of their debut album ‘Infancy’ last year, the band travelled to the Outer Hebrides to record material for a new body of work under the stewardship of The Horrors’ frontman Faris Badwan – the result of those sessions being the ‘Happy Days!’ EP which is slated for release on 17th July via Distiller Records.

Led by its menacing title track, ‘Happy Days!’ appears to mark a significant shift as they replace the bombastic choruses and cascading synths that were so prevalent throughout ‘Infancy’ with a harsher, rawer sound that suggests they’ve been listening to a lot of Nine Inch Nails and Burial in the wake of their debut release. Adding the latter to their collective slew of influences, the song is built on a bed of prowling, feverish electronics that oscillate between dark, menacing sections and ethereal moments marked out by a recurring ghostly toy-box piano motif. As if tightening its grip with each minute that goes by, Haydn Park-Patterson’s understated delivery betrays its hidden depths before it culminates with an onslaught of crushing beats. A beautiful return from the outfit, it’s a truly captivating listen from start to finish.

The band said: ‘Happy Days!’ is a song of ups and downs. At its core, the lyrics shine a torchlight on the murky highs and lows of life. We wanted to make something harsher and more direct than songs we had written before, and this came together relatively quickly.”

“The flow of the song really captures what we were trying to get across with the lyrics: there’s a rumbling undertow throughout the whole song, interspersed with ethereal ambient sections and culminating in big nasty crushing beats. We were all agreed that this should be the first song from our new EP to let people hear, and hopefully they’re not frightened away.”

Check out the track below

Picture by Raissa Pardini/ Nuala Swan Photography