James Edson
High Vis are two weeks out from the release of their sophomore studio LP, Blending. And today, the London punks have share its fifth single. “0151,” set to be the project’s second track, follows April album opener “Talk For Hours,” July’s “Fever Dream,” the title cut (also from July), and last month’s “Trauma Bonds” on the forthcoming record’s release cycle.
Named after the landline dialing code for Liverpool and the surrounding metropolitan area of Merceyside, the new song is a defiant and cynical workers’ anthem that evokes the radical D.C. punk of the ’80s. “Ghosts of the docks and the factories / The specters of somebody’s history,” frontman Graham Sayle sing-shouts over a barrage of drum fills and blistering guitars. “The river moves everything out to sea / But we’re still here.”
“With the backdrop of a decade of austerity and neglect, ’0151’ is a song about the power of collective identity,” Sayles says. “Written after my uncle passed away during the pandemic, the song was inspired by tales of life as a Ship Builder and the subsequent decline of the industry in the North of England; a song about the landscape and communities from my formative years and our current socio-economic situation.”
“Liverpool is a city familiar with the receipt of bad news,” bassist Rob Moss adds. “Old grief within the NorthWest breeds in its most mild form an inherited skepticism of authority. A scalable requirement to be outwardly disruptive and inwardly sensitive. A low-key connectivity built through regional endurance. For me the song is about struggle and resilience against policies of social and economic abandonment.”
Listen below.