New Math Release Final Pre-Album Single “Living on Borrowed Time” — Gardens Out September 5
“Living on Borrowed Time,” the final pre-release single from New Math’s Gardens album, is out August 15th. This track carries the weight of an untold story: originally written in the early ’80s for Marianne Faithfull at the request of Elektra A&R and band champion Howard Thompson, it channels cinematic drama and fatalist cool. Lyricist Gary Trainer explains its stark narrative: the character in the lyrics stands before a firing squad, asking for nothing—simply living on borrowed time. Faithfull ultimately passed on the track, but it became a live highlight for the band, a tense, shadowy anthem of defiance and acceptance. The new single is accompanied by a video made from archival footage of Rochester, NY, the band’s hometown, captured in the mid-1980s, perfectly complementing the song’s concept of time.
Gardens, New Math’s mostly unheard Psych-New Wave and Synth-tinged final album, follows on September 5, 2025. Fully remastered, the album is available for the first time on CD and widely on vinyl, including a limited-edition color pressing. Originally planned for release in 1984, Gardens was left largely unheard when Brain Eater Records shut down just before the album’s wide release, leaving shrink-wrapped copies stranded and never shipped to stores. A few copies reached college radio, but the album missed its chance to find an audience.
Recorded during a moment of creative reinvention, Gardens marks New Math’s shift from the power-pop of early singles like “Die Trying” toward a darker, more surreal sound. Trading polished new wave aesthetics for introspective and cinematic textures, the album draws on influences from Kenneth Anger films and American Gothic imagery, creating a haunted, genre-bending farewell. Songs like “Living on Borrowed Time” and lead-off single “Ominous Presence” pulse with ritualistic synth-pop energy, channeling proto-shoegaze elements akin to The Psychedelic Furs, The Gun Club, and Roky Erickson, while remaining distinctively New Math.
The expanded edition of Gardens includes all eight original tracks, fully remastered, plus five bonus tracks: four live recordings from Rochester’s underground venue Scorgies, and the original 1983 version of “The Flesh Element” from Skyline Studios sessions. This release also marks the band’s transformation into The Jet Black Berries, whose track “Love Under Will” first appeared on Gardens and later featured on the Return of the Living Dead soundtrack.
Gardens is more than a forgotten album—it’s the missing link between New Math’s angular beginnings and the darkly cinematic world they created as The Jet Black Berries. With renewed interest in early post-punk, psych-rock, and shoegaze, this long-overdue release offers a buried treasure for both old fans and new listeners alike.
