Cassels The Perfect Ending

Finding humour in the seemingly inescapable collapse of the human race. It might not be the most conventional approach to a record, but Cassels have already proved themselves to be anything but traditionalists. Made up of brothers Jim and Loz Beck, the duo spent their youth rallying against the calm, countryside boredom of growing up in Chipping Norton - developing a sound characterised by a maelstrom of erratic instrumentation and Jim’s pointed, punk-inflected vocals. Over the course of two LPs – 2018’s debut album ‘Epithet’, and ‘Foreword’, a compilation of early EPs and singles - Cassels have operated outside of strict genre distinctions, both accumulating a loyal fanbase and winning plaudits along the way.“Initially music was a distraction from the tedium of living in the middle of nowhere”, explains older brother Jim. “As teenagers we'd thrash away in our bedroom because we didn't really have anything else to do. This sense of ennui and boredom is what drove us to leave home as soon as we were old and able enough, but ironically the bucolic surroundings of our childhood have been a big influence on this new record. I guess I'd say something like 'it feels like we've come full circle', or 'we've returned to our roots', if those phrases weren't so toe-curlingly trite and awful.”Drawing on influences from the agitated post-punk of Shellac to the rasping indie of Modest Mouse, it isn’t surprising that pigeonholing the duo is no easy task. Since their 2015 debut EP, Hating Is Easy, they’ve continued to evolve into an ever more indefinable outfit, all the while tackling weighty subjects ranging from social anxieties to estranged politics. The combination is an exciting, if at times slightly intimidating, sound - the uniqueness of which isn’t totally lost on the band.“I often think we don't really fit anywhere. Sometimes it feels like we're either too much or not enough of everything; too wanky and arty to be a rock band, too heavy and aggressive to be an indie band, too sensitive and wordy to be an out and out punk band, not cool or repetitive enough to be a post-punk band, not technically proficient enough to be a math band, and too English-sounding to be a grunge band. Depending on how you look at it that either makes our band interesting and original, or utter shit.“In many ways it feels like we have a paradoxical identity crisis. Our personalities are totally ingrained in our music and I think our songs have a very distinct identity, however this identity doesn't neatly fit into any of the predefined labels which modern music is sorted into. It can be very frustrating at times - no one likes to feel like an outsider - but I think if we started trying to consciously change any element of our sound to be liked or understood by more people we'd very quickly end up hating ourselves and what we're doing.” Taking this approach into consideration, then, ‘The Perfect Ending’ is in many ways the album you’d expect Cassels to have made, packed as it is with left-field progressions and an impassioned take on contemporary issues. While the first half of the record concerns itself with topics ranging from millennial liberalism (‘A Snowflake In Winter’) to sexual assault and victim blaming (‘In The Zoo They Feed Him Nuts’), the second tackles what is seemingly the biggest impending threat to the human race: environmental catastrophe. As is consistently the case however, Cassels approach it from a somewhat unique perspective.“For me, humanity being wiped off the face of the Earth is a happy ending (though we decided we couldn't call the album 'The Happy Ending' due to the obvious connotations with seedy massage parlours). If you reflect on humanity's contribution to the planet as