Preoccupations - Ill At Ease

Preoccupations return with a focused, yet fractured, set of songs that examine dread, detachment, and the dark corners of memory. Their post-punk palette remains sharp and serrated, but this time it’s steeped in introspection: FOCUS ruminates on regret that lingers across centuries, BASTARDS finds bitter humour in mutual annoyance, and ILL AT EASE wrestles with reality’s slipperiness. Tracks like RETROGRADE and PANIC explore the exhaustion of aging and the unreliability of memory, while ANDROMEDA and SKEN use sci-fi and apocalyptic imagery to evoke isolation, longing, and defiant connection. On KREM2, nostalgia slips through static as the band taps into childhood fragments of cross-border TV signals. Preoccupations continue to evolve, pairing cerebral disquiet with gripping, often bleak, sonic landscapes.