John blek & The Rats Official

John Blek & The Rats announce the release of their second album, ‘Borders’

An album that captures the band shaking off their ramshackle beginnings and committing to tape a collection of new songs with a cohesive sonic richness, that embrace a fuller, fuzzier sound while striking a balance between experimentation and the tunefulness for which they have become known.

This is the sound of John Blek & The Rats exploring their own musical chemistry, a band evolving, breaking down barriers and crossing new ‘Borders’.

Following the critical success of their first album 'Leave Your Love At The Door', the Ireland based alternative folk group were eager to dispel any notions of 'the difficult second album' and decamped to the studio in-between tour dates. They enlisted the services of producer/ engineer Christian Best of Monique Studios in their home town of Cork city where they wrote, recorded and mixed the tracks for their new album between winter '14 and spring '15.

John explains: "Having spent a few years playing together we wanted to progress and evolve our sound with this album. The writing was very intuitive, these songs came together quite quickly, with the band featuring more prominently than previous recordings. Lyrically, I wanted to explore the contrasts of light and dark, examine the notions of right and wrong; to disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed."

'Borders' is released through We Are Rats Recordings (WARR) in Ireland on Friday 18th September.

Having also recently inked a licensing deal the album will be released and distributed on Tonetoaster Records throughout Germany, Belgium , Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland on Friday 30th October.

John Blek: Vocals / Acoustic Guitar / Electric Guitar
Anna Mitchell: Vocals / Piano / Mellotron
Robbie Barron: Electric Guitar / Vocals
David Murphy: Pedal Steel / Vocals
Brian Hassett: Electric Bass / Upright Bass
Cian Heffernan: Drums / Percussion