Leading up to new album Cowards, British art-rock/post-punk collective Squid have dropped a new track, "Building 650".

The song captures an eerie field of tension: coils of frayed, mystical 60s psychedelica bound together into a taut, driving cadence reminiscent of Mission of Burma or Women. The track is accompanied by a lo-fi video made by Felix Green, Daisuke Hasegawa, and Kuya Tatsujo, capturing Tokyo in both its widescreen splendor and desolate peripheries.

Watch and listen below:

The video is not just a random companion piece either, as the song itself was inspired by Japan, according to singer and drummer Ollie Judge:

"‘Building 650’ is a song inspired by our first ever trip to Japan. We played the Summersonic festival in 2022, luckily we were booked to play 2 days after the COVID travel ban had been lifted, because of this we felt like some of the only tourists in Tokyo. On the plane I read 'In the Miso Soup' by Ryu Murikami and watched 'Lost in Translation' out of excitement and later decided to write lyrics about being an outsider visiting Japan, including a very particular type of loneliness one can feel visiting a country that is so different from their own. This loneliness feels exaggerated in Tokyo, on the surface it’s hectic and full of people but when you listen, it’s eerily quiet."

"Building 650" arrives as a second glimpse of Squid's third LP – which arrives next month on February 7th via Warp. Earlier, the band released the sinewy yet somehow baroque 6-minute kraut rock exercise "Crispy Skin". After embracing a more insular writing process on their first two albums – 2021’s Bright Green Field and 2023's O Monolith – Cowards finds Squid wrapping their curious tentacles around the world at large.

During the recording process of Cowards, the band was holed up at Church Studios in Crouch End with producers Marta Salogni and Grace Banks. Longtime collaborator Dan Carey, who recorded the band’s first two albums, did some additional producing. Interestingly, John McEntire of Tortoise mixed the record.

Preorder Cowards here.

Following the release of the album, Squid will hit the road in Europe and the UK. Check out the complete list of dates below:

02-17 — Liverpool, UK - Invisible Wind Factory
02-18 — Manchester, UK - O2 Ritz Manchester
02-19 — Glasgow, UK - Old Fruitmarket
02-21 — Newcastle, UK - NSU Domain
02-22 — Sheffield, UK - Leadmill
02-24 — Cambridge, UK - Junction 1
02-25 — Norwich, UK - The Adrian Flux Waterfront
02-27 — Oxford, UK - O2 Academy Oxford
02-28 — Southampton, UK - Engine Rooms
03-01 — Margate, UK - Lido
03-02 — Brighton, UK - Chalk
03-04 — Birmingham, UK - XOYO
03-05 — Bristol, UK - Bristol Beacon
04-09 — Paris, FR - Cabaret Sauvage
04-10 — Cologne, DE - Club Volta
04-11 — Dresden, DE - Polimagie Festival
04-12 — Berlin, DE - Lido
04-14 — Schorndorf, DE - Manufaktur
04-15 — Amsterdam, NL - Melkweg
04-16 — Antwerp, BE - Trix
04-18 — Rotterdam, NL - Motel Mozaique Festival
04-19 — Nijmegen, NL - Doornroosje
04-26 — London, UK - Roundhouse

The Needle Drop may earn an affiliate commission via purchases on ticket links through this article.