Breaking News
Perfume Genius - New Album 'Set My Heart On Fire Immediately' out May 15th via Matador
On May 15 Perfume Genius (Mike Hadreas) will release his 5th studio album, Set My Heart On Fire Immediately, via Matador Records.
Today, he shares the first single, Describe a track that captures a sense of living in the moment through a heavy fog of grizzly distortion and tumbling slide guitars.
Hadreas notes, “it started as a really somber ballad. It was very minimal and very slow. And then it turned into this beast of a song. I started writing about when you are in such a dark place that you don’t even remember what goodness is or what anything feels like. And so, the idea was having someone describe that to you, because you forgot or can’t get to it.” Its accompanying video, self-directed by Hadreas, envisions “an end of the world where there are no boundaries, there are no edges, no rules, or the rules are completely new with how you interact with each other and the space around you.”
The music video for “Describe” features Seattle-based choreographer Kate Wallich’s dance company The YC. Wallich and Hadreas worked together on 2019’s The Sun Still Burns Here, collaborative dance performance in which Hadreas wrote the music and performed.
Perfume Genius will join Tame Impala on a North American arena tour throughout the Spring and Summer. Dates include stops at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena (June 2nd), Montreal’s Centre Bell (June 3rd) and Vancouver’s Rogers Arena (August 5th)
Set My Heart On Fire Immediately sees Hadreas re-teaming with GRAMMY-nominated producer Blake Mills and features contributions from musicians Jim Keltner, Pino Palladino and Matt Chamberlin. It was recorded in Los Angeles, where Perfume Genius settled in 2017 with longtime partner and musical collaborator Alan Wyffels. Pre-order Set My Heart On Fire Immediately
The album explores and subverts concepts of masculinity and traditional roles, and introduces decidedly American musical influences. Throughout the album Hadreas plays with themes of love, sex, memory and the body, channeling popular music mythologies while irreverently authoring its own. “I wanted to feel more open, more free and spiritually wild,” says Hadreas, “and I’m in a place now where those feelings are very close— but it can border on being unhinged. I wrote these songs as a way to be more patient, more considered — to pull at all these chaotic threads hovering around me and weave them in to something warm, thoughtful and comforting”
The sense of communion and physicality was borne in part from Hadreas’ work on The Sun Still Burns Here. Already a formidable stage presence, it had elevated him to a rigorous multi-disciplinary performer. “I had been working with them for a year and a half. With lots of rehearsals, lots of performances, lots of relationships and energies, and I was feeling connected to my body. I was feeling connected to all their bodies. And having boundaries be blurred and having rules be gone and having all this play within nonsense and absurdity — in tandem with a real connection and truly valuable work.” In 2019, the show travelled to Boston, New York and Minneapolis after its Seattle debut.
Introducing caroline
caroline are pleased to share their debut live session and signing to Rough Trade Records.
“Dark blue” was shot in January 2020, in a disused swimming pool in North London.
London based caroline began as a three-piece (Jasper Llewellyn, Mike O’Malley, Casper Hughes) in early 2017, initially evolving out of weekly improvisation sessions. Bringing together shared influences in, and experiences of playing, midwestern ‘emo’ guitar music, Appalachian folk, minimalist classical and various forms of dance music.
The group spent a year and a half playing privately, without a project name. Reiterating, deconstructing and re-building the same small handful of songs over and over again, the group slowly expanded their on-stage members before playing their debut show as caroline in 2018. caroline are currently working on their debut album.
Montrealer Syv de Blare Signs to b4/4AD Releases new single “WAKE”
Syv de Blare is a newcomer on the avant-garde pop scene bound to shatter expectations and create a new sonic and visual lexicon. Hypnotic, sensual and futuristic; Syv’s unique sound and presence is undeniably pop, yet feels part of this generation’s New York, Paris or London underground.
Today marks the release of WAKE, the soaring new single by Syv de Blare, her first since signing to b4.
Along with the single comes a stunning video for the track “WAKE” conceptualized by Syv and co-directed with Margot Bowman (PrettyBird) and filmed by Kevin Hayden (Billie Eilish, Cardi B, Selena Gomez, Gucci).
“I first conceptualized the video thinking about the performative facet of a relationship both with yourself, others and society as a whole,” Syv explains. In the video for “WAKE”, Syv embodies layered identities of womanhood; the Pop Star, the Showgirl, the Bride. “I chose to embody these three identities that define me but that also define many women. The bride persona in its essence embodies the idea of possession. The sensuous showgirl is an American symbol that personifies the idea of the woman as a commodified creature. Finally, the pop star represents decay and the pressures put on the female body. We are often bound to perform these archetypes of femininity, crafted by a patriarchal society.”
On “WAKE,” Syv’s voice permeates the politics of womanhood with a message deeply rooted in re- envisioning what it means to perform femininity for ourselves and others. “WAKE” is a farewell letter to a lover, but most of all to oneself; it’s an ode to becoming once more. The track produced by ANGO and mixed by Heba Kadry (Björk, Blanck Mass, Zola Jesus, Princess Nokia) is a celestial banger best exemplifying Syv’s cyber-blues style. The lyrics move the listeners through the feeling of despair and resurface as a celebratory hymn for the many that have traversed the excruciating pain of betrayal and loneliness.
A trained jazz vocalist, the singer and songwriter ended up on the mic at many storied club nights in her hometown of Montreal. Immersed in house and techno in her early teenage years, Syv’s style blossomed in Montreal’s electronic scene, revealing an energy and essence that is both classical and rebellious.
Syv started recording her personal project while completing her BFA in photography at the Rhode Island School of Design. Now based in New York City, Syv’s creative process is anchored in art theory, while her background in photography informs a distinct approach to her work, both in her writing and art direction.
Syv describes her music as cyber-blues. “It lives on the cusp of past and future, it inherently feels ancestral and futuristic simultaneously,” Syv explains, adding: “My listeners need to feel home and displaced, terrestrial and otherworldly, nostalgic and hopeful. Those are the moments where music and art vibrates for me.”
Syv de Blare has the voice and vision of a post-modern iconoclast, an artist in charge of her ethos but nonetheless vulnerable enough to disrobe her truths before our eyes, sure to resonate with an audience in pursuit of inclusion and change.
Stay tuned for more music and news from Syv de Blare to come this Spring.
King Krule shares new song and video 'Cellular'
Ahead of the release of his third King Krule album Man Alive! this Friday, Archy Marshall shares “Cellular,” the opening track on the new album.
The song comes with an animated video created by Jamie Wolfe, who previously collaborated with Archy on a short video for “Vidual.” Wolfe has also created animations for Gucci and the TV show Rick & Morty.
You can catch King Krule performing in Canada on April 17th (Queen Elizabeth Theatre – Toronto) and April 18th (MTelus – Montreal)
Man Alive! will be available on standard vinyl, indie record store exclusive transparent red vinyl, and a webstore exclusive limited edition white 12” vinyl with bonus flexi disc including the Hey World! version of “Perfecto Miserable.”
Desert Sessions release new video for 'If You Run' directed by Rio Hackford
Joshua Homme’s collaborative motley crew Desert Sessions follow up the recent fever dream vision of their Easier Said Than Done with the latest music video from Desert Sessions Vols. 11 & 12 (Matador): “If You Run.” Directed by filmmaker / actor Rio Hackford, “If You Run” stars Homme and DS newcomer Libby Grace as a mysterious hitchhiker, following them on a sinister trip through the Joshua Tree desert, culminating in a freakishly hallucinatory finale set at the famed Rancho De La Luna studio. Hackford’s “If You Run” visualisation also stars DS collaborators Billy Gibbons, Dave Catching, and Matt Sweeney, Stella Mozgawa, and Carla Azar.
“The video was inspired by Josh bringing an unknown Libby Grace into the Desert Sessions arena to show her haunting magic to the world. Homme, Sweeney and I are some of the only people who have heard Libby’s music, so the idea of them introducing her to the players and recording process lit the fuse. The song lent itself perfectly to the lonesome desert landscape and the spell that the Rancho can cast on anyone that passes through its doors.” – Rio Hackford
Dim the lights and join Homme and Grace on a trip through the mystical California desert
In other news… Inspired by the (disappointingly) frequent misspelling of the Desert Sessions, the desert collective have launched the Dessert Sessions: Feral Recipes for the Joyful Destruction of Taste Buds, a unique collection of otherworldly recipes created and inspired by the music of the Desert Sessions. Cheese stuffed meat rings, sardine topped doughnut cakes, avocado and sour cream gelatin plates abound! Fans can try their hands at one of these recipes here and share their creations by tagging #dessertsessions.
Ending a 16-year hiatus, Desert Sessions returned in October 2019 with the most ambitious entries to date in its expansive and elusive catalog. Vols. 11 & 12 were recorded (mostly) in December 2018 at Rancho De La Luna studios in Joshua Tree, CA, with Queens of the Stone Age founder and Desert Sessions ringleader/producer Joshua Homme enlisting a cast of players including Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), Stella Mozgawa (Warpaint), Jake Shears (Scissor Sisters), Mike Kerr (Royal Blood), Carla Azar (Autolux, Jack White), Les Claypool (Primus), Matt Sweeney (Chavez, Superwolf, Endless Boogie), Matt Berry (What We Do in the Shadows, Toast of London), Libby Grace and of course Töôrnst Hülpft.
