Temples have always been a band who trusted their instincts, and ‘Vendetta’ — their brand new single and the second taste of forthcoming album BLISS, out June 26 on V2 Records — is what those instincts sound like when they’re firing on all cylinders. It’s scuzzy riffs colliding with lasering synths and a bubbling, dancefloor-ready melody that shouldn’t work as well as it does, and absolutely does.
The song has an interesting origin story. It started as two entirely separate ideas that, when fused together, found something neither half could have been on its own. Frontman James Bagshaw describes the result: “Suddenly, you had this almost Justice-Daft Punk-sounding sample that then goes into something that could be a modern take on dance music, like a David Guetta or Avicii song.” That combination — the classic psychedelic DNA of Temples meeting full-tilt electronic euphoria — is exactly what makes ‘Vendetta’ feel thrillingly unpredictable. NME called it “the psychedelic electronica rush…a sign of the band’s feet being firmly planted on the dancefloor.” The Times went with “ominous but catchy psychedelic rock.” Both are right.
It follows first single ‘Jet Stream Heart’, which landed on Virgin Radio’s playlist and went into heavy rotation on BBC 6 Music, confirming that BLISS represents a genuine new chapter for the band. Where their 2023 album Exotico was made with guest producer Sean Ono Lennon, this one is entirely self-produced — the band working together in the same room, leaning into improvisation, using samplers to manipulate and reassemble their own songs rather than borrowing from elsewhere. The result, they say, feels collage-like and interconnected, motifs and textures flowing across the whole record.
The influences make sense once you hear it — Faithless, Underworld, Massive Attack, Portishead, the euphoric melancholy of the Ibiza scene and the emotional pull of late 90s and early 2000s European electronica, filtered through Temples’ unmistakable melodic instincts. Clash said it best: “A band who have never shied away from their melodic side…absorbing the world-building electronics of Massive Attack and Underworld.” This is Temples at their most liberated, and it sounds fantastic.
And if ‘Vendetta’ has you ready to see them live, you’re in luck — Temples have also announced a run of UK headline dates for November, plus Latitude Festival this summer and a full US and European tour.
0 Comments