Pre-order the new album “The Mad Decades”, out 29th May on The Colour Inverted Records.
Available on Digital / Cassette formats.
“…properly crafted pop songs full of life, full of details, something more than just a repeat of the line and here comes the refrain again, something that credits a pop music fan with a bit of intelligence than most pop music does.” The Organ
New single & video “Jester Quantised” out now
The new Nick Carlisle single & video “Jester Quantised” is out now, taken from the forthcoming new album “The Mad Decades”. Watch the folk-horror tinged official video, filmed by Aubrey Simpson & starring artist, DJ, & member of The Fallen Women Heidi Heelz.
“Once I believed I could find the gold,
Once I looked up to the heroes of old…”
(“Jester Quantised”)
With “Jester Quantised”, Nick wanted to play around with different time signatures to see what might sound interesting. Aubrey Simpson (Pale Blue Eyes) underpins the strange rhythm with writhing fretless bass. Nick: “The song is about what I’d view as a bit of a golden age, the late 60’s through the 70’s, a time when a bunch of songwriters were pushing the boundaries of music, lyrics, lifestyle, all from an often intellectual or philosophical standpoint. Sort of the Nietzschean concept of the Superman someone like Bowie or Peter Hammill would reference. And how by this point in 2026 most of them are either dead or infirm or certainly well up in years. So what are we left with and where are we now? Well, with this song the contrast is then with what has become of the music industry and the relation between artist and listener, where nowadays we’re all expected to have our own social media channels and pop on there saying “Hi guys!”, desperately trying to flog our songs. The artist once on the pedestal now reduced to the jester at the feet of his audience, hoping for scraps.”
Jester Quantised has its own folk horror-inspired official promo video. Shot by Aubrey Simpson, it features artist, DJ & musician Heidi Heelz & bassist Joe Davin as two medieval townsfolk chasing down and setting upon the outcast Jester played by Nick, somewhere in the South Downs. Having caught up with him they push and pull him, rub his face on the dirt, and pelt him with fruit and veg. All great fun to film!
New single “Three Studies Of A Half Human” out now
Out today is the brand new Nick Carlisle single “Three Studies Of A Half Human”, taken from the forthcoming new album “The Mad Decades”. Watch the official lyric video, incorporating photography by Aubrey Simpson.
Following the release of “Hilversum”, “Three Studies Of A Half Human” is the second single to be taken from the forthcoming album The Mad Decades. Nick wrote the song after watching a 1960’s documentary on the painter Francis Bacon. Here we have the artist of the mid 20th Century, a largely pre-digital world, with his workspace at almost hoarder-levels of clutter, newspapers and magazines piled up around him, paint all over the walls, and out of this chaos coming the creations on canvas. Totally, and indeed literally, immersed in his art. This perhaps seems like a world lost when we contrast it with the current era where AI can “do everything for us”, including making visual art, music etc, with the human artist almost completely removed from the process altogether.
As a nod to the black and white ’60’s doc which inspired the song, Nick dug out his ancient Stylophone, which plays child-like melodies over the angular pounding piano and guitar riff.
The very EMS VCS3 synthesizer which features on The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” makes an appearance too, following a fruitful recording visit to The Townshend Studio in London where it now resides. Nick is also joined by past and current collaborators: Julian Tardo (Insides) on guitar, Joe Davin (Insides) on bass guitar, Andy Pyne (Map 71) on drums, and Simon Adams on acoustic guitar.
The Mad Decades Listening Party
Join me for a free listening party over at nickcarlisle.bandcamp.com to celebrate the release of my new album The Mad Decades. Come along to listen to the music and chat about the making of the album and the stories behind the songs, I hope to see you there.
Wednesday 27th May at 7pm BST. Click here to RSVP.
New single “Hilversum” out now
Out today is the brand new Nick Carlisle single “Hilversum”, taken from the forthcoming new album “The Mad Decades”.
Watch the official lyric video, filmed by Anna River.
I set the song on a return train journey out of Hilversum – completely randomly I might add, and I’ve never been to the place! But it’s the story of someone leaving a situation where their sense of self and their confidence has been confronted in some way perhaps after a meeting with someone they were crushing on, and they are left wondering if that suit of armour was ever real at all, or imagined. I was aiming for something that had the euphoria & melancholia of ABBA with the multitracked pianos, mixed with the drive & movement of NEU! & Harmonia.
The drum machine that underpins the song comes from YouTube vintage synth documentary maker Alex Ball, and Marcus Hamblett (Bears Den / Rozi Plain) provides the bass guitar.