TV on the Radio return with new track entitled Mercy

TV on the Radio have unveiled their first single since 2011's Nine Types of Light.

Mercy is the most recent piece of material from the Brooklyn-based art rock band since the untimely death of their bassist Gerard Smith in 2011. The song, which was first performed at the recent All Tomorrow's Parties festival at Camber Sands in May, is their most basic and visceral yet: they've dropped the mechanical thunder of their early albums and the nocturnal funk of their recent releases, returning with their most raw and rock'n'roll sonics yet. One thing's stayed the same however: bleak, foreboding lyrics; with Mercy's chorus featuring the bellowing abandon of "it burns so cold!"

Reading on mobile? Listen to the song here

No release dates have been shared so far, but Mercy might be the first of many new songs. Band member Kyp Malone explained to the Huffington Post that this track, as well as another entitled Million Miles "came to fruition with such ease that it felt like an invitation to get back to this good work". The song will be out through producer David Sitek's Federal Prism label, while the band have suggested that they have split acrimoniously from Interscope, TV on the Radio's home since 2006's Return To Cookie Mountain.

This week Sitek announced that his label would share a selection of songs from various artists including CSS, Kelis, Scarlet Johansson and Stardeath and the White Dwarfs via SoundCloud, including the stems to each track so that fans and artists could give remixing a go. In keeping with the band's fascination with technology, they premiered Mercy on the Huffington Post's Instagram account on 30 July.