As mentioned earlier this month, The Last Battle have been back in the studio working on their sophomore album. The first fruits of these sessions is a new single ‘Hope Is Gold’ which is out now, available to download from their bandcamp for the princely sum of 79p. That’s a bargain for two tracks, especially when they are as good as these two.

A-side ‘Hope Is Gold’ showcases the fantastic vocal interplay between Scott Longmuir and Arwen Duncan once more, as well as introducing the band’s violinist Jonathan. B-side ‘The Crunching’ is also extremely good indeed. In the best possible way very different from anything else they have done before, and far more post-punk and less folk than anything I have heard them do before…

The launch night for the single takes place on June 22 at Pilrig St Paul’s Church Hall in Leith, with support from William Henry Miller, Star Wheel Press and Where We Lay Our Heads.

Amongst the other forthcoming live dates they have are LeithLate 2 at Elvis Shakespeare on Leith Walk, Edinburgh on June 28,where they will be playing with Edinburgh School For The Deaf and Blueflint.