German Post-Punk Act Bleib Modern Trap Time in Amber With “Glow”

Germany’s Bleib Modern is back. The Berlin/Munich post-punk band announces a lush track, Glow, from their new album, Afraid To Leave. 

Over the past year, Bleib Modern’s trajectory, like countless others around the globe, went completely topsy turvy. After their first label deal was cancelled and their tour abruptly ended, the group found themselves forced to change direction.

Glow, with its sonorously crooning vocals, gliding guitars, and deliberate bassline saunter, is a rich journey into melancholia. The track is illustrated with a charming self-directed music video by Thomas Schamann, the band’s drummer (and “glitchboy”), using footage taken from touring adventures throughout Europe. In eyes of 2020 as hindsight, the video serves as a veritable wake for life in the Before Times, with footage from their thwarted tour recorded with a dying film camera in the waning moments before the pandemic.

Previously, Bleib Modern sought out DIY production for their first two EPs and three albums, but at Lala Studios in Leipzig, they expanded their signature sound and enlisted the help of creative genius Magnus Wichmann with recording, mixing, and mastering the album. The result is a highly emotional, melancholy, and wistful collection of songs mired in the quicksand of 2020’s deep ennui. Perhaps the band’s chaotic experience this year has some merit; the album’s haunting tunes indeed capture the mood of the collective.

Watch the video here:

Afraid To Leave is out now via Icy Cold Records on vinyl, CD, digital, and on cassette + digital on Black Verb Records.

Featured photo by Michał Wiktor Cajzer