Crack Cloud have shared a video for ‘Costly Engineered Illusion’, the final preview of the Vancouver collective’s upcoming album Tough Baby. Check out its accompanying video below.
“We spent a week in Trenčín, Slovakia, over the summer producing a theatre representation of the housing crisis in Western Canada,” Crack Cloud said of the clip. “It was our first venture into live theatre; the process was spontaneous, disorienting, and new. Finding synergy with Silvia Sviteková and her dance company was an elevating experience, reinforcing our mutual love for creative improvisation. The video is primarily a compilation of B roll from our time there.”
‘Costly Engineered Illusion’ follows the previously released singles ‘Please Yourself’ and ‘Tough Baby’. The album is out September 16 via Meat Machine.
Mount Kimbie are back with their first new music since last year’s ‘Black Stone / Blue Liquid’. Today, the duo has released two double AA-side singles: ‘in your eyes’, which features slowthai and Danny Brown, and ‘a deities encore’ (featuring Liv.e) were created by Dom Maker, while ‘Q’ and ‘Quartz’ were produced by Kai Campos. Take a listen below.
Earlier this year, Campos teamed up with Actress on the new track ‘AZD SURF’.
Nisa, the moniker of Brooklyn-based musician Nisa Lumaj, has shared a new song, ‘Affection’. It’s taken from her upcoming EP Exaggerate, which was produced by Water From Your Eyes’ Nate Amos and drops on September 30 via Hit the North Records. Listen to ‘Affection’ below.
“‘Affection’ focuses on the importance of tenderness,” Lumaj explained in a statement about the song, which follows the previously released title track. “Nate [Amos] and I wanted the production to feel understated yet shimmery in order to communicate the power of nonverbal cues and little acts of care.”
Exaggerate will follow last year’s Guilt Trip and Time to Plant Tear EPs.
New Jersey hip-hop artist Cakes Da Killa has announced a new LP called Svengali, which arrives on October 28 via Young Art Records. Today’s announcement comes with the release of the album’s title track, alongside an accompanying Rahil Ashruff-directed video. Check it out below, and scroll down for the album cover and tracklist.
Svengali will follow Da Killa’s Muvaland Vol. 1 & 2 mixtapes, which came out in 2020 and 2021 respectively, but was recorded before either of them. It includes the previously released singles ‘Drugs Du Jour’ and ‘Sip Of My Sip’.
Svengali Cover Artwork:
Svengali Tracklist:
1. Overture
2. W4TN
3. Rabbit Hole
4. Svengali
5. Luv Me Nots
6. La Cocaina
7. Mirror Mirror
8. Drugs Du Jour
9. Gratitude
10. Ball And Chain
11. Sip Of My Sip [feat. Sevendeep]
12. Luv Me Nots [Reprise]
13. Sub Song
14. Think Harder
15. Climax
Franz Ferdinand stopped by The Late Late Show With James Corden to deliver a performance of ‘Curious’, a new track that appears on their recent greatest hits album Hits to the Head. Watch it below.
Hits to the Head came out back in March via Domino. In addition to ‘Curious’, it includes another new song called ‘Billy Goodbye’.
Ari Lennox has shared a surprise new EP called Away Message. It arrives just over a week ahead of the release her sophomore full-length, age/sex/location, which includes the recent single ‘Hoodie’. The 5-track EP opens with ‘Queen Space’, a duet with Summer Walker that will also feature on the upcoming LP. Stream Away Message below.
age/sex/location is the follow-up to Lennox’s 2019 debut album Shea Butter Baby.
Naima Bock has shared a new live performance video of her single ‘Campervan’, taken from her debut album Giant Palm. The rendition was recorded alongside violinist Oliver Hamilton (caroline, Shovel Dance Collective) and the Institute Collective contemporary vocal ensemble. Watch the video, which was filmed at Waverly House in Margate, below.
“It was a real pleasure to work with the Institute Collective, we had a beautiful day meeting all of the singers, arrangers and crew,” Bock said in a press release. “There was a very special energy whilst filming and the more we sang together the better it got. I’m delighted to release this video and to have worked with such a talented bunch.”
Hughie Gavin, the composer, producer and vocal arranger who founded the Institute Collective, added: “I loved arranging ‘Campervan’ as the song has such a natural ebb and flow. I tried to make sure the voices followed that movement, rising and falling throughout. I also wanted to be true to the songs clear contrasting sections. As well as the part itself, how the choir sung was really important, from the airy builds in the verses to the almost raucous chorus refrain.”
Smoke Fairies, the duo of Jessica Davies and Katherine Blamire, have announced a new compilation comprising all singles the band has released since their 2008 debut 7”, ‘Living With Ghosts’. It’s slated for release on October 28 via their own Year Seven Records. The collection features ‘River Song’, which was produced by Jack White and was originally released on a double A-side 7” as part of Third Man Records’ Blue Series and also features White on drums and guitar. Along with the announcement, Smoke Fairies have now unveiled an animated video for the track from director Sophie Graves. Check it out below.
“15 years of releasing singles can go by in a flash,” the duo commented in a statement. Creating this release has been a reflective experience as we looked back into the Smoke Fairies archive. Each single release has its own memory.”
Of ‘River Song’, they added:
When Jack White invited us to the Third Man studio to record we had no idea what to expect or what songs to bring to him. River Song is an intricate, dark and eerie piece that we had been crafting for some years. It was recorded in a very pure way, 2 guitars, our vocals sung into old vintage mics, straight to tape. We flew back home from Nashville leaving the track to be worked on by Jack. A few weeks later 2 finished versions arrived; one straight forward, haunting and simple and one complete with timpani’s and a rambunctious Jack White guitar solo. None of us had ever envisaged the song going in that direction when we began but as our mouths dropped to the floor when it first played, we knew which version we had to release. It’s hard to place it to a time or place or genre, it’s just an oddity of a track; a collision of two worlds that we will be forever grateful for.
Sofie Royer has shared her new single ‘Klein-Marx’, which is lifted from her forthcoming album Harlequin. It follows previous offerings ‘Schweden Espresso’, ‘Baker Miller Pink’, and ‘Feeling Bad Forsyth Street’. Check out a video for it, directed by Jasmin Baumgartner and Royer, below.
Of the song, which is named after the Klein-Marx bridge, Royer said: “I sing about wanting to throw myself off the bridge when the going gets tough, the wry joke being that the bridge is not very high and underneath it the Vienna River flows shallowly, running into the Donau Canal.”
Harlequin comes out September 23 via Stones Throw.
Editors have released ‘Vibe’, the latest single from their upcoming album EBM, their first LP with Benjamin John Power aka Blanck Mass. It follows the previously shared cuts ‘Heart Attack’, ‘Karma Climb’, ‘Kiss’. Check it out below.
According to guitarist and pianist Tom Smith, the new track “takes up where [2019 single] ‘Frankenstein’ left off, and is a hymn celebrating the night, and all that thrives in the dark.”
