Hot Milk have released the rampant “Insubordinate Ingerland”, a quintessentially tongue-in-cheek take on the band’s home turf, their own accidental football anthem. It might be dressed up as an open-top bus parade, but the song’s sarcastic undertone encapsulates the album in a nutshell.
“A necessary excursion that was born quickly and forcibly. We had no choice in this song coming out of us, probably the quickest song we ever wrote lyrically. In modern-day England, it is difficult to know where we stand in a wishy washy world of identity politics. Who are we? Who are they telling us we are? What do we stand for? Why is the poverty gap widening? Why are old people freezing? Why is the NHS in disarray? Is our culture just the pub? But I love the pub? Is that bad? Am I just on the bevs to forget the bollocks outside? I’m so confused. This song is just that, a confused, hyperbolic look and an aggravated poke at ourselves. I’m England til I die… because I have no choice and this place might be the death of me yet. ” says Han Mee.
Jim Shaw continues “The fun thing about ‘Insubordinate Ingerland’ is that Han has had that tattooed on her terribly for a number of years as a sort of reflection as to the crumbling state of a nation that tends to do what it wants. For better or for worse. She thought fuck it let’s turn my stupid stick n poke into a song and here we are. What’s extra fun about this song is that we roped in so many mates to make it… the gang vocals were recorded by Jim in his front room in Salford with all our mates after tea one night. The video was shot in Bolton with our mates as extras and our long-term collaborator and friend Kennedy as director. It looks a lot more expensive than it was…Good lad, Kennedy.”
Stream the new single here, or scroll down for the video
Hot Milk’s sophomore album, Corporation P.O.P. is an extravagant, uncompromising assessment of the perilous world around us, examined through a sharp British lens that is both witty and universal.
Having studied a politics degree, Han Mee has used that with Corporation P.O.P. – where Hot Milk unleash the pent-up anger experienced en masse around the globe. “I’ve always felt like a bit of a white knight – it’s my duty to save the world somehow,” says Han. “I feel very, very impacted by the world’s issues, consistently. I wanted to be an MEP [Member of European Parliament], that was my dream.”
Despite its global outlook, Corporation P.O.P. is an album that takes root in Manchester and Salford, exemplified by the band’s decision to shoot all of their videos in their hometown. “Newt Gingrich, who was a US politician, once said ‘All politics is local’,” says Han. “I’m trying to look local and be involved locally so I can affect my world. This is how I survive, because the world can feel overwhelming.”
“Manchester is the best f’in city in the world,” she continues, getting somewhat emotional, having recently u-turned from a permanent move to LA when Manchester came calling back to her. “We started this band in Manchester, it’s intrinsic to me and who I am. It has to bleed into the art we create, because it helped me create it.”
Produced by the band’s own Jim Shaw, with Zach Jones and KJ Strock, you can sense Hot Milk’s killer instinct throughout the record, a result of the intensive writing process and recorded as live album, it offers the band at their heaviest with their raw, unapologetic lyrics which brim with unfiltered emotion.
Snapshotting the gloom of the present and unloading very real fears for the future, the sentiment behind Corporation P.O.P. might feel locked inside a time capsule. But fast forward two decades, and time will surely prove why this record carries the hallmarks of something timeless.
