Gang Of Four Release New Video/Single CHANGE THE LOCKS From Upcoming Album

As pioneering post-punk band GANG OF FOUR prepare for the release of their latest album HAPPY NOW this Friday, April 19, 2019 via Gillmusic LTD., they are releasing their new single and video "CHANGE THE LOCKS" to ramp up the excitement.

The follow-up to their powerful single "Paper Thin", "Change the Locks" captures the spunk and angular post-punk rhythms that is the band's trademark. XS Noize said of the single: "the marriage of swirling synths and electronic beats is entrancing," while Louder Than War quips it as "a standout cut" and "a synth-propelled, mutant funk shapeshifter."

The upcoming album Happy Now is the perfect synthesis between a modern take on the classic GO4 sound - a pop touch with those timeless angular guitar lines and fractured rhythms - with a fast forward vision. It's this combination of electronics and the jagged guitar lines pursuing 21st century grooves that achieves a striking balance between the band's fundamental sound and its restless embrace of the now and the new.

Happy Now comes 40 years after the release of the band's ground-breaking debut Entertainment!, diving deeper into the heart of the classic Go4 sound with a modern slant. A combination of electronics and angular lines pursuing 21st century grooves achieve the striking balance between the band's fundamental sound and its restless embrace of the now and the new. Harnessing the unbridled energy of their live show, Gaoler's melodic vocals radiate confidence while Andy Gill's serrated guitar cuts through Thomas McNiece and Tobias Humble's grooving rhythm section. The result is a body of anthemic songs of modern confusion, and the band's best and most consistent work since their post-punk years.

Standout cuts such as opener "Toreador," "Change The Locks," "Ivanka: My Name's On It," "White Lies" and "I'm A Liar" capture the full energy of their live show. McNeice's bass is fierce, sharp, full of post-punk grind. He looks sharp and lean, dangerous as well, with his suicide runs across the stage, all the while locking in tight with the dark energy groove. Meanwhile Gaoler is delivering his impassioned vocals, complemented by Gill's steel-eyed resolve.

Redesigning rock in the punk aftermath, they took the incendiary energy of the form and crisscrossed it with funk, stripping away the baggage of rock excess and creating a new stripped-down music that was full of energy, heavy grooves, shrapnel guitars and politically charged lyrics matching the harshness of the times.

Gang of Four bounced around the music business releasing a series of albums including 1979's universally lauded Entertainment! (which celebrates its 40th birthday this year) and they have been a direct inspiration to a diverse selection of bands, from the surrounding post-punk generation to the big bands that followed. The Red Hot Chili Peppers, INXS, R.E.M., U2, Rage Against the Machine, Nirvana and Massive Attack have all spoken of their debt to Gang of Four.

More recently, the band's influence has become almost universal - now everybody talks about Gang of Four. From Franz Ferdinand to St Vincent, from Sleater-Kinney and James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem to Nine Inch Nails and IDLES, today's leading creators have GO4's influence and imprint all over them. The band is also reaching an urban audience with Frank Ocean sampling them on his latest album and Pharrell name-checking the band in his interviews.

The 2019 Gang of Four are glorious. They sound enormous. They are exciting and have more than a whiff of danger and revolution about them. Gill radiates intensity and still plays the guitar like it's sparking with electricity, and his band of young droogs add a youthful exuberance and energy that electrifies the songs and makes Gang of Four a thrilling exercise in reinvention.

HAPPY NOW will be released on April 19, 2019 via Gillmusic LTD.

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