A few weeks ago, The Membranes released their first studio album in 26 years. Titled Dark Matter/Dark Energy, the latest offering from the iconic, Blackpool-born punk band is a sprawling, genre-straddling opus that’s definitely worth the wait.
“We never actually stopped officially, we just didn’t do anything for a few weeks and that turned into about 25 years,” says Membranes frontman, bassist and all-round punk rock renaissance man John Robb. “When My Bloody Valentine asked us to do ATP, we got a good reaction and it carried on from there. I didn’t want us to be a retro band and just play the old stuff, though. In fact, when we went into the studio so much stuff poured out it ended up being a double album.”
Partly inspired by a conversation with CERN head Joe Incandela about the Higgs boson particle (he also features on ‘The Multiverse Suite’), the record deals with the life and death of the universe and punk, goth, dub, drone, classical and space rock influences are all mined.
“I can never trust anyone who only likes one type of music,” says John. “The new record taps into the spirit of post-punk, where everyone was off on their own journeys. It’s like those black metal bands like Wardruna and Ulver who don’t actually play black metal anymore. They started there, but ended up making Viking folk music or electronic music yet still retain the spirit of their original genre. We’re interested in punk rock but we don’t necessarily want to play that.
“I met Joe at a TEDx talk and he told me what he knew about the Big Bang theory, the end of the universe, how time occurs and how it may not even exist at all,” he continues. “Basically, the more they learn the more they realise how little they know, which I found inspiring. All the best music comes out of a sense of wonderment.The universe is incredibly beautiful but also incredibly violent and that matched the kind of album we wanted to make.”
Perhaps the piece de resistance of the record is the mammoth closing track ‘The Hum Of The Universe’. A powerful and deeply personal offering, it features the voice of Robb’s father who sadly passed away last year.
“My father died during the making of it and some of the songs are about that and others are about how when you die you just return back to universe dust. He was in a nursing home (he had dementia) but he could still hold really good conversations about anything apart from the present time. He had incredibly sharp memories of being in the RAF in the war and stuff, but anything over the last two days he couldn’t remember at all. One day we had this amazing conversation about the universe and I decided to record it as I wanted to be reminded of his voice as it was obvious he was going to die at this point. Out of our 45 minute chat I clipped a piece out and put it on the track. It’s about him and the universe. It’s quite weird hearing it now as it’s like listening to a ghost.”