Next year, Gang of Four are set to release Content, their first album of new material in 16 years. As a taste of what to expect, here's a three-track EP to stream or download (if you don't mind parting with an email address).

Featuring a reworked version of the classic Glass (from their debut album Entertainment!), a brand new song (Sleeper) and a remix of the Content track I Party All the Time, we could tell you a bit about how they came about. But then, why do that when Andy Gill and Jon King can do it for us?



Glass (reworked version)

Andy Gill: Glass is a song me and Jon had been confused about for years. We loved the words with Jon's cartoon-like snapshots of our banal real lives, and we knew the music was great but not right – it seemed too busy and kind of old fashioned. Then in 2005 we said: "Enough! This song needs to breath!" So we did a simple stripped-down thing that matched the ultra-minimalism of the words. That was it – confusion over.

Sleeper

Jon King: This song didn't make it on to Content but we like it a lot. It's a jangling slab of signature Gill guitar drone over a repetitive humping groove. Two layered voices tell an untidy story about living in a world of ersatz smiles and ersatz coffee.

In the song, my character isn't feeling right. As attractive young people in Barista baseball caps shout the orders, I'm fumbling for a lost loyalty card. There'll be no freebie Americano and, meanwhile, I'm stuck behind an angry suit complaining about a late flat white. The lower orders try to placate him. They're under observation by a managerial junta, and dream of change and manumission. They work but they'll never be free. The man in the queue before me gets aggressive; trying to operate his Crackberry and pour sugar, he believes the immigrants have come here on a mission, traitorous codes embedded in their brownness, sleepers who've hijacked jobs the idle poor should embrace. Right now, he's my enemy. I hope he chokes on it.

I Party All the Time

Jon King: A rocking guitar riff heisted from Andy's vault of genius licks takes us on a journey to nowhere – a deranged town where if only we stay schtum it'll all be all right. Eddi Reader joins in on backing vocals – now that's a voice – and our tale's about getting down and keeping your head down.

Scene one: After a period of reckless government, the aristocracy has taken power. Despite failing to win an election, a ConDem conspiracy sets out on a ruthless class war. There is an assault on the poor, the disadvantaged and middle-income families. The über-rich and City gamblers are accumulating wealth at a breathtaking rate. So, what's to be done? Scene two: Our hero realises he's had a hand in these crimes and tries to make sense of his own role. He realises that there's something he can do: Look the other way! There's a song to be sung and a gift in our hearts! We're all in it together! Get Down On It!