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THE SOFT PINK TRUTH

The Soft Pink Truth

Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever?

    The Soft Pink Truth (Drew Daniel also of Matmos) grafts chamber music and electronic music into a beguiling new hybrid pop album that evokes mid-20th century film soundtracks with nods to minimalism. 'Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever?' features artwork by Robert Beatty (Tame Impala, The Weeknd). The new album features a host of special guests: Bill Orcutt offers one of his most delicate performances committed to record. Other guests include strings arranger Ulas Kurugullu, harpists Neleta Ortiz and Cecilia Cuccolin, pianists Koye Berry and M.C. Schmidt, strings player Kurugullu, and the Ebu String Quartet, as well as woodwind players by Brandon Wilkins and Evelyn Frances and Zach Rowden of celebrated noise duo Tongue Depressor provides grinding double bass drones. Wedding emotional expression with canny references to the inherited history of recorded music, the chimes, organ and pizzicato strings on 'Phrygian Ganymede' recall Bernard Herrmann’s scores for classic Alfred Hitchcock films, while galloping marimbas lend a sense of screwball comedy on 'L’Esprit de L’Escalier'. 'Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever?' is a singular album that speaks to the prowess of Drew Daniel as a composer and producer, deftly interlacing pop structure and classical timbre while interlacing subtle electronic sound design with gorgeous acoustics. Across the album Daniel embraces a spirit of drama and romanticism that blurs the boundaries between unconscious desire and everyday reality. The Soft Pink Truth has created a sound world of lavish fantasy that acts as a balm and counterpoint to the communal pains of modern life.

    TRACK LISTING

    1. Mere Survival Is Not Enough
    2. And By And By A Cloud Takes All Away
    3. Phrygian Ganymede
    4. Underneath (I)
    5. L'Esprit De L'Escalie
    6. Time Inside The Violet
    7. Orchard
    8. Underneath (II)

    The Soft Pink Truth

    Is It Going To Get Any Deeper Than This?

    Hot on the heels of the sold-out limited EP, ‘Was It Ever Real?’, The Soft Pink Truth release super catchy, sexy contemporary disco banger, ‘Is It Going To Get Any Deeper Than This?’. Throughout the ten songs of the album, the provocation to go deeper prompts promiscuous moves across the genres of disco, minimalism, ambient, and jazz, sliding onto and off of the dancefloor, sweeping higher and lower on the scale of frequencies, engaging both philosophical texts re-set as pop lyrics and wordless glossolalia.

    Daniel’s romantic and musical partner MC Schmidt and friend Koye Berry play piano, Mark Lightcap (Acetone, Dick Slessig Combo) plays acoustic and electric guitar, Jason Willett (Half Japanese) plays bass, Nate Wooley plays trumpet, Brooks Kossover (Drugdealer) plays flute, John Berndt and Andrew Bernstein (Horse Lords) play saxophone, and shakers, shekere, tumba, triangle and cajon parts are played by Cuban percussionist Ayoze de Alejandro Lopez. There are chamber instruments as well: harpsichord by Tom Boram, harp by Obadias Guerra, Irish harp by Una Monaghan and, on many tracks, lush string arrangements by Turkish arranger Ulas Kurugullu for violin, viola, and cello that recall the Love Unlimited Orchestra found on classic Barry White albums.

    Sidestepping retro kitsch but paying homage to highly personal interpretations of disco such as Arthur Russell, Don Ray, Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band, and Mandré, or the jazz funk of Creed Taylor and CTI Records. Its emphasis on slowly morphing deep house grooves will also appeal to fans of DJ Sprinkles, Moodymann, and Theo Parrish.

    Gorgeous artwork designed by Robert Beatty, known for his work with artists such as Tame Impala, The Flaming Lips, The Dream Syndicate, Thee Oh Sees, Neon Indian, and Oneohtrix.

    STAFF COMMENTS

    Matt says: An alluring mix of moody and avant disco with rich, head-turning instrumentals which almost trip into live deep house jams. Somewhere between Manchester's See Thru Hands, The Rotating Assembly and 40 Thieves. Mega!

    TRACK LISTING

    Deeper
    La Joie Devant La Mort
    Wanna Know
    Trocadero
    Moodswing
    Sunwash
    Joybreath
    Deeper Than This?
    Toot Sweet
    Now That It’s All Over

    The Soft Pink Truth is the solo alter ego of Drew Daniel, one half of celebrated Baltimore-based electronic duo Matmos.

    After a decade of silence in which Daniel concentrated on Matmos and becoming a Shakespeare professor, The Soft Pink Truth is set to release ‘Why Do The Heathen Rage?’, whose subtitle ‘Electronic Profanations Of Black Metal Classics’ reveals its bizarre agenda as an unrequited love letter to a justly divisive genre.

    A gleeful queer travesty of black metal’s undying obsession with kvlt authenticity, ‘Why Do The Heathen Rage?’ is also a formally precise homage executed with a scholar’s obsession. With the guitar chord transcription assistance of Owen Gardner (Teeth Mountain, Horse Lords) and a coven of guest vocalists including Antony Hegarty (Antony And The Johnsons), Terence Hannum (Locrian), Jenn Wasner (Wye Oak) and M.C. Schmidt (Matmos), Daniel meticulously transposes the riffs, structures and patterns of black metal chestnuts and deep cuts by Darkthrone, Venom, Mayhem, Sarcofago, Beherit and more into oddly hybrid new forms. Cruising camp absurdity by forcing a sticky tryst between the two mutually incongruous early 90s subcultures of rave and black metal, the results are bracingly strange on first listen but curiously addictive as the album sinks in.

    TRACK LISTING

    Invocation For Strength
    Black Metal
    Sadomatic Rites
    Ready To Fuck
    Satanic Black Devotion
    Beholding The Throne Of Might
    Let There Be Ebola Frost
    Buried By Time And Dust
    Maniac
    Grim And Frostbitten Gay Bar


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