Back in March we reported that Simian Mobile Disco had selected the remote desert town of Pioneertown, CA, to record their new album, Whorl. Performed in front of an intimate audience at Pappy & Harriet’s with a simple setup consisting of two modular synths, two sequencers and a mixer, three days of sessions have morphed into a finished album that is now mastered and set for release on September 9 through Anti Records. Lead track “Tangents” will drop on July 1, and long time SMD art and video collaborators Jack Featherstone and Hans Lo have built a complimentary custom hardware system to create the album’s visual aesthetic.
Obligatory press release gush from Jas Shaw: “The recordings we did in the studio while we were writing and rehearsing the new material for Whorl were simply “live” takes – the system we’re using has limited ability to save patterns in the sequencer, but nothing like the flexibility of a computer. Live performance and studio composition are essentially now the same process, rather than the common method of writing a track using the computer, and then working out ways to perform it live. We planned not to slavishly limit ourselves just to this performance – when we came to mixdown the album, we used portions of three sessions – the show itself, an extended jam we did in the desert the day before, and a little of our London studio rehearsal.”
Watch a trailer for the album including a brief excerpt of “Tangents” below.
Tracklisting for Whorl
1. Redshift
2. Dandelion Spheres
3. Sun Dogs
4. Hypnick Jerk
5. Dervish
6. Z Space
7. Nazard
8. Calyx
9. Jam Side Up
10. Tangents
11. Iron Henge
12. Casiopeia