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Split Chain Turned Their Debut Into a 26-Track Hardcore Reunion

motionblur [DELUXE] doesn't just reissue the Bristol nu-gaze quintet's first album — it drags half a scene into it.

There's a version of the deluxe reissue that plays it safe: a couple of demos, a remaster, a sticker on the vinyl that says "now with bonus content." Split Chain did not make that record. motionblur [DELUXE] takes the Epitaph band's debut and expands it into a 26-track document, and the additions aren't filler — they're a guest list that reads like a hardcore compilation smuggled into a shoegaze album's back half.

Start with "Headway [DLX]," which brings in Las Vegas hardcore outfit Roman Candle, and "SPIT [DLX]," which hands vocal duties over to London quartet False Reality. Neither pairing is an obvious one on paper — Split Chain built their name on blur and atmosphere, not breakdowns — and that's precisely what makes the tracklist worth sitting with. Postdrome, Commoner, Slow Degrade, and Concealer round out the deluxe cast, which means this isn't a one-off feature but a genuine expansion of who gets to be in the room with this record.

## Why the guest list is the story

Deluxe editions usually ask "what did we leave in the vault?" This one asks a different question: what happens if you let a hardcore band answer a nu-gaze song? The False Reality and Roman Candle features aren't just credits — they're a bet that motionblur's original mood can hold up under a heavier hand without losing what made it work the first time. Kerrang! and GBHBL were already on board with the original album; the deluxe edition is Split Chain testing whether that goodwill extends to a version of themselves with sharper edges.

The preview single "scatterbrain" is the clearest signal of that bet. It's described as blending aggression and atmosphere within the motionblur style — not abandoning the blur for volume, but pushing the two elements closer together than the debut did. If the rest of the deluxe tracks follow that logic, the record isn't so much "motionblur plus bonus tracks" as motionblur run through a second, harder filter.

## What's actually available, and when

The deluxe edition was announced July 1, 2026, through The A-Ricalper and a run of independent outlets — not a major press cycle, which tracks for a band whose whole identity has been built outside of that machine. It's available now for pre-order on Bandcamp, including high-quality download options, which matters if you care about hearing the mix the way the band intended rather than however a streaming platform compresses it.

The timing lines up with something bigger than a release date. Split Chain tour the UK in September 2026, and both False Reality and Roman Candle are on the bill alongside them. That's not a coincidence of scheduling — it's the deluxe edition's guest list turning into an actual live document. If you're going to hear "Headway [DLX]" and "SPIT [DLX]" performed with the people who made them, September in the UK is the window.

For a Bristol nu-gaze band signed to Epitaph, that combination — hardcore collaborators on record, hardcore collaborators on the road — reads like a deliberate widening of the room rather than a victory-lap reissue. The question worth sitting with isn't whether motionblur [DELUXE] is bigger than the original. It obviously is, by fourteen tracks and four new names. It's whether the record convinces you that Split Chain's sound was always built to hold this much weight, or whether the deluxe edition is the sound of a band finding out in real time alongside everyone else.

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