On August 20th, Interpol’s canonical debut album Turn On The Bright Lights turns 20. To commemorate this moment, the band today make the fan-favourite and TOTBL companion The Black EP available on digital platforms.
Originally released on August 26th, 2003, as a limited-edition CD, the long out of print The Black EP features the studio version of ‘Say Hello To The Angels’, a demo of ‘NYC’ and four TOTBL-era songs recorded live in session for Radio France in 2002, including fabled non-album bonus track ‘Specialist’. Listen HERE.
Accompanying the release is a 2002 short documentary on the band made by a French subsidiary of then-label EMI. Hitherto lost in the annals of 144p YouTube rips, the 13-minute clip is brought to glorious hi-res restoration, featuring interviews with the band as well as snippets of performances of ‘PDA’, ‘NYC’, ‘Untitled’ and ‘Stella was a diver and she was always down’.
Last month, Interpol released their seventh album The Other Side Of Make-Believe. “[Make-Believe] may be Interpol’s most accomplished record since their early run of classics,” said The Ringer. “The Other Side of Make-Believe maintains the charm and intrigue that made Interpol indie darlings 20 years ago, but it also finds the band aging gracefully,” wrote SPIN.
The Black EP Tracklist:
- Say Hello To The Angels
- NYC (Demo)
- Obstacle 1 (Black Sessions)
- Specialist (Black Sessions)
- Leif Erikson (Black Sessions)
- PDA (Black Sessions)
