Today, Dog Unit unveil ‘Consistent Effort‘, the second full track shared from their debut album, At Home, due for release on Brace Yourself Records on April 5th on limited edition LP, CD and digitally.
The penultimate scene of the suite that comprises At Home, ‘Consistent Effort’ is a near six-minute odyssey that offers an oasis of pop melody towards the end of album – fans of Jim O’Rourke and Sonic Youth’s more reflective later years will find much to love here – before reaching an almighty crunch at its apex. Ostensibly the album’s climax before the closing-credits calm of the final track, the band see ‘Consistent Effort’ as being a “sort of microcosm of the whole album in one track: a certain neatness and pop feel, but also some of the heaviest playing anywhere on the record too”.
‘Consistent Effort’ comes accompanied by a video, directed by John Newton of noise-rock duo – and Dog Unit’s Brace Yourself Records labelmates – JOHN. Newton describes the video as “a piece of avant-garde cinema in response to the feelings evoked by the track”. The visuals were loosely inspired by a recent house move and the discovery of a new place, which prompted “a little meditation on the shackles of ‘things’ and ‘spaces’.”
Alongside ‘Consistent Effort’, the band also today announce the limited “Greensleeve” edition of At Home, an innovative physical edition of the album geared towards greater environmental sustainability. The Greensleeve is identical to the LP version, with all the same expansive photography, liner notes and lush physicality, except in place of the vinyl record itself will be a code for high-resolution downloads of the album alongside a set of four drinks coasters made from sustainable cork that are exclusive to the Greensleeve variant, giving listeners something stylish to rest their drinks on while they listen to At Home at home.
The driver of the ground-breaking Greensleeve edition is a statistic often quoted in conjunction with consistently rising vinyl sales, that up to 48% of vinyl records are never played. This represents at best a market failure – huge numbers of fans appear to want only the packaging, not the media, but can’t buy just that – and at worst an ecological disaster, given the heavy carbon footprint of the vinyl-production industry.
Accordingly, the Greensleeve edition seeks to cater to the Dog Unit fan who buys physical music primarily to show their support and to own a physical object that can augment the listening experience, but who doesn’t want to contribute to the ecological weight of vinyl production or who has a tighter budget: priced at just £9.99, the greensleeve is not just the most environmentally friendly physical version of At Home, but also the easiest on the wallet.
Guitarist Sam Walton says, of the Greensleeve, “We’re not trying to tell our fans that buying vinyl is environmentally irresponsible — records are beautiful things that bring lifelong joy to many, and the members of Dog Unit own thousands between them — or that the greensleeve is some zero-emission silver bullet. Instead, we’re suggesting a rethink to the ecology of record-collecting and interacting physically with music that, it would appear, many fans are already crying out for.”
1. Concrete Barges on the Banks of the Thames
2. Lab Coats
3. When Do We Start Fighting?
4. We Can Still Win This
5. In a Magic World, Then Yes
6. John X Kennedy
7. Consistent Effort
8. The Dogs Are Barking Again
Pre-order At Home on CD, LP or digitally, or grab the “greensleeve” edition, here:
https://lnk.to/DogUnit-AtHome
Tour dates:
Apr 5th – Southampton, UK – Vinilo Record Store
Apr 6th – Oxford, UK – Truck Records
Apr 7th – Leeds, UK – Crash Records
Apr 18th – London, UK – The Lexington
Apr 28th – London, UK – Omeara
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Phot credit – Xenia Owens