‘Electric War’ Sparks a New Era for Little Barrie & Malcolm Catto

Little Barrie & Malcom Catto have released their second album together, Electric War, which is out via Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys Easy Eye Sound.

The pair's previous album, Quatermass Seven, was released in 2020, with an alternative takes edition, Quatermass Expansion, following in 2022. Little Barrie, aka Barrie Cadogan and Lewis Wharton, released their first album, We Are Little Barrie, in 2005.

 Having released Quatermass Seven, their first album together in 2020, Electric War, is Little Barrie & Malcolm Catto’s first for Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound. The new album sees them push the boundaries even further, expanding their rich sonic palette and proving that the chemistry embedded in the grooves of their debut was no fluke.  “I’ve been a fan of Malcolm’s drumming since I first heard him, likewise with Lewis’ bass playing.” Says Barrie, “We go back a long way together, and you can’t fast-track that stuff. I wanted to see what we could do when we stretched out musically.”

Progression from their first album was also key for Malcolm in his approach to production - “I didn’t want to repeat ourselves in regard to a sound, so tried to strip things back more and get the most we could from just the original studio performances.”

The highlights are many on the new record, from the lysergic, laid back funk of ‘Creaky’ which comes complete with cello courtesy of The Heliocentrics Danny Keane and Barrie’s fluid and tasteful wah-guitar lines, and ‘Spektator’ which sets Barrie’s beautifully understated vocal delivery against a shifting arrangement, which the trio execute with a stylish touch that shows just how much they’re in tune with each other. “We now feel confident that we don’t have to be bound by traditional song structures for this project to work live,” says Lewis. “I think the shows that followed the first record have influenced us to feel free to go with whatever sounds exciting to us without overthinking it.”