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Lucinda Chua shares Second Single ‘Torch Song’
Lucinda Chua follows the release of Until I Fall the first track from her upcoming EP Antidotes 2, with second single ‘Torch Song’, out today. Antidotes 2 is released digitally this Friday.
The song is accompanied by a short film by Chua making her directorial debut. Set against the raw, industrial backdrop of Tate Tanks, the one-shot one-take video captures a tender, stripped back rendition of ‘Torch Song’ performed by Chua on a grand piano. As the performance unfolds, we see close up details of Chua’s black satin jacket, adorned with East Asian iconography she painstakingly embroidered by hand over a nine month period.
Like so many, the past year in lockdown was an isolating experience for Chua. “When you don’t get to participate in your culture, it’s like a part of you is being erased, a piece of your spirit is washed away, you become a bit more invisible.” Those feelings were heightened by discussions about racism on social media and within the music industry. Where music was once a place of solace for Chua, it became a source of pain. “Sometimes I feel like people don’t see me. When people don’t see you they can hurt you, even though they don’t intend to.” Over nine months, she stopped listening to and playing music entirely.
Teaching herself to embroider, something she had never done before, Chua got lost in the meditative process of sewing. This quickly became an outlet for her to chronicle new learnings about her heritage and to reaffirm her identity. Inspired by ancient Chinese culture, she brought mythical creatures and elemental symbols to life with colourful threads. The jacket tells a story of her growth over lockdown and became her reason to emerge from musical hibernation, it is something she wears with pride in the music video. “This project has been about holding the torch for myself, so I can feel seen.”
Lucinda Chua is a singer, songwriter, composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist based in South London. Born in London and raised in Milton Keynes, Chua has English, Malaysian and ancestral Chinese roots. Having learned music by ear from the age of three using the Suzuki method (whereby young children are taught music in the same way they would a native language), Chua regards music as a natural form of non-verbal self-expression.
While barely in her 20s, Chua caught the attention of US label kranky, releasing two albums with her first band Felix and touring with Stars of the Lid as a cellist and string arranger. After Felix’s demise, and relocating to London, Chua self-released her debut solo EP Antidotes 1 whilst simultaneously performing in FKA twigs’ live band for her Magdalene tour in 2019. Earning praise from Pitchfork, The Guardian, Dazed and gal-dem, Chua has performed one-person shows across the UK and Europe including Red Bull Music Festival London, MUTEK Barcelona, Tate Modern and Somerset House.
A sister release to the self-released Antidotes I, Antidotes 2 expands Chua’s unique sonic vocabulary, with subliminal textures that bleed into each other before fading away. If Antidotes 1 was Chua building the landscape and scenery for her music, then Antidotes 2 is her living within it.
Lucinda Chua’s debut release for 4AD, Antidotes 2 is out digitally on 7 May. A special deluxe vinyl edition, entitled Antidotes, includes both EPs and will be released on 13 August.
black midi Present New Single/Video, "Slow"
black midi present a new single/video, “Slow,” from their forthcoming album, Cavalcade, out May 28th on Rough Trade.
In conjunction, they announce a fall American tour, plus a new KEXP interview and performance. A full circle moment for black midi, their first KEXP performance (live from Iceland Airwaves in 2019) is how many first experienced the band.
Following lead single John L, “a zoomed-out optical illusion, making you question what you’re witnessing at every turn,” (Pitchfork, “Best New Track”) “Slow” is one of two Cavalcade songs fronted by bassist Cameron Picton. The music for “Slow” was written just before black midi’s February 2020 UK tour with the lyrics finalised when demos were recorded in June 2020. They tell the story of a young and idealistic revolutionary dreaming of a better world who ends up being shot in the national stadium after a coup d’état.
“The ‘Slow’ video was made to fit the oscillating dynamics of the song. Going from calm to chaos over and over again,” says director and animator Gustaf Holtenäs. “The video tells the story of a character who creates AI-generated worlds. To emphasize this, I let real AI’s generate a lot of the backgrounds in these worlds. So they are partly AI-generated, but It isn’t long before an AI could create the whole deal and create endless iterations of fantasy worlds. It can already create a random beautiful landscape painting in 1 second.”
Cavalcade is a dynamic, hellacious, and inventive follow-up to black midi’s debut, Schlagenheim, one of 2019’s most widely-praised albums. Cavalcade scales beautiful new heights, pulling widely from a plethora of genres and influences, reaching ever upwards from an already lofty base of early achievements. black midi — Geordie Greep (guitar, primary vocals), Cameron Picton (bass, vocals), and Morgan Simpson (drums) — picture Cavalcade as a line of larger than life figures, from a cult leader fallen on hard times and an ancient corpse found in a diamond mine to legendary cabaret singer Marlene Dietrich, strolling seductively past them.
LSDXOXO SHARES NEW TRACK “THE DEVIL"
Today Philly-born, NYC-bred and Berlin-based DJ, producer and performer LSDXOXO returns to share The Devil, the first track off his forthcoming EP DEDICATED 2 DISRESPECT out May 14th on XL Recordings.
The second offering from LSDXOXO is a world of darkness and opulence. “I make a deal with the devil/sell my soul and my body/but I look fucking good/whipping in my Maserati,” sings LSDXOXO, over a crunchy and addictive pop-infused techno production. “The Devil” is LSDXOXO to the core; a mixture of light and dark and a hard party anthem inspired by Black nostalgia.
Smerz release new track ‘remember’
Smerz share ‘Remember’, a hidden track from the physical version of their recently released debut album Believer.
Released digitally for the first time, the track is accompanied with a live performance video, taken from their 2020 Ultima Festival presentation of Believer, Smerz recently shared the full performance on Bandcamp and today share the clip for ‘Remember,’
‘Remember’ is a break-up ballad marked with the signature Smerz amalgam production. This time the duo combines R&B and hymn-like vocal iterations. The result is a beautiful song about carrying the memories of your past relationships with you into the future. It’s a perfect complement to the wider themes of Believer, which Resident Advisor raved is an “album about raw friendship, personal image and collective awareness.”
““Remember” is about remembering a past relationship. It’s about trying to carry your past with you into the future, to make it feel like it really happened. A life is arguably a collection of everything you’ve experienced, but sometimes it feels like the present drowns out everything that’s been. That could be a good thing, we’re not sure.” – Smerz
Beginning this week a limited edition songbook with lyrics and sheet music for Smerz’s album Believer will be available on the duo’s Bandcamp. The sheet music allows the listener to play along in ensembles or solo, carrying forward the classical tradition of distributing music as written notes. Believer is a musical prism where baroque music sparkles side by side with R&B elements, and with the songbook, the listener is invited even further into the dream world of Smerz.
“Our hope is that the songbook can be used both as a documentation and elaboration on Believer, but also as a generator for new music or at least new interpretations of the already existing music.” – Smerz
Released last month, Smerz’s debut album Believer gained critical acclaim from the likes of Pitchfork, The Sunday Times, PAPER Magazine, Gorilla vs Bear, Pop Matters, FADER and more. Previously known for their 2017 Okey and 2018 Have Fun EP’s, Smerz debut album Believer revealed a new auditory and visual world that has caught the attention of fans around the globe including Björk, who featured the duo on her Sonos radio show. Written, composed, and produced by Smerz, who is Catharina Stoltenberg and Henriette Motzfeldt, Believer is out now on XL Recordings.
Newly signed to 4AD, Lucinda Chua releases single "Until I Fall"
Lucinda Chua is a singer, songwriter, composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist based in South London. Primarily using her voice, a cello, and an array of effects units, Chua writes ambient pop songs that are intimate, atmospheric, and totally enchanting.
Newly signed to 4AD, she will release a second EP of solo work, Antidotes 2, on May 7th 7.
Today, Chua launches the EP’s opening track Until I Fall with an accompanying video directed by William Kennedy. She says, “for me, this song is about rebirth and finding the inner strength to rise.”
Born in London and raised in Milton Keynes, Chua has English, Malaysian and ancestral Chinese roots. Having learned music by ear from the age of three using the Suzuki method (whereby young children are taught music in the same way they would a native language), Chua regards music as a natural form of non-verbal self-expression.
Whilst studying photography at university in Nottingham, Chua took an elective course in music production and the resulting experimental tracks she created and uploaded online caught the attention of US label kranky.
Before long she was touring with Stars of the Lid as a cellist and string arranger and went on to release two albums with her first band Felix – all while barely into her 20s.
After Felix broke up, Chua spent a few years in London exploring the city’s creative scene and began experimenting with the cello. Those explorations became her 2019 debut EP Antidotes 1 which flitted between hushed songwriting and expansive textural soundscapes.
Chua self-released the EP during her time under NTS Radio’s ‘Work In Progress’ mentorship scheme, whilst simultaneously performing in FKA twigs’ live band for her Magdalene tour.
Earning praise from Pitchfork, The Guardian, Dazed and gal-dem, Antidotes 1 led to Chua performing one-person shows across the UK and Europe including Red Bull Music Festival London, MUTEK Barcelona, Tate Modern and Somerset House.
A sister release to Antidotes I, Antidotes 2 expands Chua’s unique sonic vocabulary, with subliminal textures that bleed into each other before fading away. If Antidotes 1 was Chua building the landscape and scenery for her music, then Antidotes 2 is her living within it Some of the songs were written during the same period whilst others, like EP opener ‘Until I Fall’, are brand new.
Antidotes 2 is out digitally on 7 May. A special vinyl edition of Antidotes will include both EPs and will be released on August 13th.
