Released in time for Halloween, Post Coal Prom Queen’s new single ‘Free Radio Phobos‘ is an urgent, heart-racing highlight of Music for First Contact, their forthcoming album which explores contact with aliens and contemporary Scottish identity.
Formerly known as L-space, the duo of Lily Higham and Gordon Johnstone have produced a track which combines lush synth-pop and a sense of unease, which also features violin from Laura Wilkie (Fat Suit, Kinnaris Quintet) and saxophone from Calum Cummins of (Bombskare/Yoko Pwno).
‘Free Radio Phobos‘ comes at a critical juncture in Music For First Contact, the band’s opera which made its sold out live debut at Edinburgh’s Hidden Door Festival in June 2022 to great acclaim. The opera told the story of humanity’s first contact with alien intelligence through the lens of Scottish identity and the ‘dark forest theory’ popularised in Cixin Liu’s Three Body Problem novels. Liu posits a cosmic sociology whereby life seeks to preserve itself by destroying other life – lest itself be first destroyed. ‘Free Radio Phobos’ is the argument against responding to the alien’s signal; of remaining hidden and fearful in the dark rather than facing the galactic visitors as agents of our own future.
Accompanying the song is a cinematic video made by the band themselves. Speaking about the video Gordon Johnstone says: “’Free Radio Phobos’ is a song about fear – we wanted the video to reflect the anxiousness and chaos of the music. We shot and edited it ourselves in Lily’s flat with just a folding chair, a strobing torch, and a few bottles of wine.‘
