Bleak Squad, the Melbourne collective formed by Adalita, Mick Harvey, Mick Turner and Marty Brown, have released a new single as they prepare for their largest national run to date. Black & White arrives ahead of an extensive February and March 2026 tour and offers another glimpse of the group’s growing creative force, following a breakout year centred on their debut album Strange Love.
The new track forms part of a limited edition 7-inch release featuring Black & White on the A-side and A Suitcase In Berlin on the B-side. The record is available for pre-order now, with a one-time pressing arriving on 6 February through Poison City, one day before the tour launches in the Blue Mountains. Black & White is available digitally from today.
Both recordings were captured during the Strange Love sessions, then set aside when the album tracklist reached its limit. The band note that the pair remained favourites, prompting the decision to give them a standalone place in the Bleak Squad catalogue.
Black & White began as an instrumental piece by Turner before Adalita shaped its lyrical direction, resulting in the kind of loose, atmospheric tension that has defined much of the band’s early work. A Suitcase In Berlin, adapted and translated by Harvey from the Marlene Dietrich original Ich Hab’ Noch Einen Koffer In Berlin, stands as the second time Harvey has approached the song across his long career of reinterpretation projects.
Both songs have already become mainstays of the group’s live set. Their inclusion on a dedicated 7-inch release reflects the band’s desire to make these pieces available in physical form as an addendum to Strange Love.
Bleak Squad formed in Melbourne when Brown gathered the four musicians during a summer break, each member drawn from a different legacy in Australian independent music. Their debut album Strange Love, released in 2025, became an immediate success, topping the AIR Chart and entering the ARIA Top 40. It also earned shortlist recognition for The Australian Music Prize, affirming its cultural impact.
Their first shows left strong impressions, with performances at Melbourne Recital Centre and Sydney’s City Recital Hall demonstrating the chemistry that has fuelled the project. Audiences responded to the group’s moody, guitar-driven dynamic, dual lead vocals and instinctive interplay. Observers described the collaboration as an unexpected alignment of four distinct creative voices, each contributing a different texture to the band’s noir-rock foundation.
Each member brings a long, influential history.
Adalita rose to prominence with Magic Dirt before building an acclaimed solo career across records including Adalita, All Day Venus and Inland. Her work continues to shape Australian rock, while Magic Dirt’s reunion reinforced their status as live innovators.
Harvey’s story reaches back to the formative years of Australian post-punk, beginning with The Birthday Party and extending through his pivotal role in Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. His solo career resumed with the 2024 album Five Ways To Say Goodbye, a project that connected original compositions with interpretive works.
Turner remains central to Dirty Three’s legacy, known for his expressive guitar approach and his long catalogue of recordings and visual art. His work across groups such as Venom P. Stinger and Mess Esque underscores a wide creative range.
Brown’s background with Art Of Fighting and collaborations with artists like Clare Bowditch shaped his eventual creation of Bleak Squad. His invitation to Adalita, Harvey and Turner emerged from a shared instinct for spontaneity, resulting in a band that records quickly and prioritises mood, space and feel.
Strange Love captured this immediacy, with many tracks recorded in just two takes at Melbourne’s Head Gap Studios. The album walks through themes of love, loss and emotional weight, presented through shifting guitars, interlocking rhythms and alternating lead vocals. It combines the introspection of Turner’s guitar work with the drive of Brown’s drums, the atmospheric pull of Harvey’s phrasing and the melodic tension of Adalita’s delivery.
The record has deepened the group’s reputation as a rare meeting point of Australian art-rock voices. Many have already noted that the quartet’s shared instincts have produced a body of work that feels remarkably unified, with a sound that sits comfortably between shadowed elegance and raw energy.
Bleak Squad will tour nationally in early 2026, playing metropolitan and regional venues across the country. With each member carrying their own busy schedules, the band emphasise that the tour represents a rare window where all four are in Australia at the same time.
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2026
Saturday 7 February – Blue Mountains Theatre, Springwood
Sunday 8 February – Perth Festival
Thursday 12 February – Her Majesty’s Theatre, Ballarat
Friday 13 February – Theatre Royal, Castlemaine
Saturday 14 February – Riverboats Festival
Thursday 19 February – Princess Theatre, Brisbane
Friday 20 February – Imperial Hotel, Eumundi
Saturday 21 February – The Regent Cinema, Murwillumbah
Wednesday 4 March – Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse
Thursday 5 March – The Factory Theatre, Sydney
Sunday 8 March – Golden Plains Festival, Meredith
All shows on sale now except Canberra, which opens on 1 December.
Tickets via feelpresents.com.
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