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Big Thief release 'Live at The Bunker Studio'
Today, Big Thief release Big Thief – Live at The Bunker Studio, as well as video footage of all the songs.
The bulk of these recordings are culled from 2019’s widely praised Two Hands and U.F.O.F., additionally including ‘Black Diamonds’ from their earlier album Capacity.
Directed by Marisa Gesualdi in November 2019, this collection was originally previewed with live videos of Not and Cattails, but now the whole session is available to listen to and view.
YAEJI DEBUTS NEW PAC-MAN COLLABORATION: “PAC-TIVE”
Today, NYC-via Seoul artist Yaeji has revealed a new collaborative music video for PAC-MAN titled PAC-TIVE.
Yaeji wrote and produced the track using the original vault of PAC-MAN sound effects as samples, and worked with director WEiRDCORE on an animated music video starring a hybrid character of Yaeji’s companion dog Woofa and PAC-MAN.
Commissioned by PAC-MAN for their “Be PAC-TIVE!!” initiative, the campaign is meant to inspire and encourage PAC-MAN fans to stay engaged and active. For the initiative, PAC-MAN set out to create innovative and inspiring music and visuals by some of the worlds most renowned artists, with today marking the release of the Yaeji and WEiRDCORE collaboration which features rising China and Japan based creative collective, DiAN.
The music video for “PAC-TIVE” is produced and directed by elusive visual artist WEiRDCORE, who corresponded with Yaeji to bring to life their collaborative ideas for the bespoke animated music visual project. Inspired by Yaeji’s childhood memories of Korean market fronts, the video trails a modified Woofa-based character who is chased around a mysterious 3d virtual city-center where neon signs, designed by The Designers Republic, illuminate the characters as they transverse the PAC-MAN inspired virtual world.
A longtime fan of the Japanese video game, Yaeji says of the collaboration: “PAC-MAN is a game my parents and I can both remember playing in arcades growing up. It connects me to my previous generation and possibly to future generations too.”
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.
