+/- {Plus/Minus} is excited to release “Calling Off The Rescue” the final pre-release single to be released from their highly anticipated new album Further Afield out May 31 on Ernest Jenning Record Co. (pre-order). Shot by the band with their mounted phones while rehearsing, the video is a simple black and white verité document that captures the live performance energy for which the band is known. As the song nears its end and the intensity increases, the camera quickly cuts between Chris Deaner’s bombastic drum solo, Patrick Ramos’ and James Baluyut’s dueling guitars, and the soaring harmonies of the song’s climatic finale all leading to a massive crescendo.  It is an intimate and exhilarating journey.

“Calling Off the Rescue,” is out now on all streaming platforms, and according to the band’s Patrick Ramos it is a song about, “Neglect. It’s about trying to save something that seems like a lost cause.  I had been thinking about the Malaysian Airlines flight that vanished and other search and rescue operations and the horrifying idea of still being lost when a search is called off.  It terrified and fascinated me.  I liked the metaphor of it to describe the state of a neglected relationship.”

The song, despite its subject matter, is a surprisingly upbeat and uplifting affair that almost didn’t happen.   “I had an intro and chorus but no verse. This was back in 2016, I brought the song to the studio with James and Chris and we tried a few different arrangements, different drum beats, and chord progressions but none of them felt right to sing over. Chalked it up as one of those songs that wouldn’t be forced and had to reveal itself to us, so we left it on the shelf.  A few years later, we were rehearsing, jamming really, and stumbled upon a chord progression with its matching minor feeling key, reminiscent of The Smiths, slotted in well with the original intro and chorus and we leaned into the influence.  It was the missing puzzle piece.” 

That missing puzzle piece became the song’s verses which drive “Calling Off the Rescue,” alternating with the gentle and plaintive chorus featuring Ramos singing along to chopped-up samples of his daughter’s high school treble chorus,  “I had posted a video of a beautiful performance of theirs and James suggested that we sample it for this song.  After all the pitch-shifting, they sound unrecognizable from the original, but I like the idea of my daughter and I singing together on a recording.”