Palaces is his most confident, mature and uncompromising work to date, a true testament to nurturing the relationships that make us whole and bring us peace. As Flume continued to forge a strong connection to his surroundings, the album he wanted to make started to form, eventually adopting a title to properly highlight the luxury and magic of the natural world. He and his neighbor and longtime collaborator, the visual artist Jonathan Zawada, became fascinated by the local wildlife, in particular the birds, collecting field recordings that ultimately worked their way into the album. Settling in a coastal town in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Flume quickly found the inspiration he needed through reconnecting with the nature around him-the rolling hills, walking around barefoot, the green color the sky turns before a big storm, growing and eating his own vegetables, the smell of rain. Fans of ‘Skin’’s dance-pop hits will be satiated, too, with lead single ‘Say Nothing’ featuring Australian artist May-A, the closest rival to that album’s standout, Tove Lo-featuring single ‘Say It’.Palaces began to take shape when Flume returned to his native Australia after struggling to write music in Los Angeles at the beginning of the pandemic. ‘Only Fans’, a collaboration with Spanish artist Virgen María, fuses carnal vocals with industrial beats, and there are moments of filthy bass-heavy electronica (‘Get U’) and chaotic hyper-pop (‘Highest Building’, ‘Escape’) elsewhere. That’s not to say Streten forgoes the bangers altogether. The title track, meanwhile, sounds like the sun rising after a wild night, with bird song (and his pal Damon Albarn’s distinctive vocals) guiding you home as the darkness ebbs away. Elsewhere, the euphoric ‘Go’ begins with ASMR-friendly sounds of running water, with bouncy hooks and lush production later erupting into a jubilant floor-filler. On the cinematic ‘Jasper’s Song’, trilling piano arpeggios are pulled and pushed through woozy processors – it’s the equivalent of a stoned geezer boshing out a Ludovico Einaudi piece on a short-circuiting keyboard. The results of this shift see Streten’s distinctive sonics imbued with an ethereal twist. The move shook him out of a creative rut: “Coming here and doing fuck all made it possible to unblock whatever was going on”. “I just need the space and the peace and quiet,” he told NME of the move in a recent interview for our In Conversation video series, explaining that the chilled lifestyle, where he could live among local wildlife, ended up being extremely conducive to his process. Inspired by the natural world, the project was first started in LA, but finished in his native Australia, where he decamped as the COVID-19 pandemic began. Third record ‘Palaces’ sees this sound infused with something more, though. READ MORE: Five things we learned from our In Conversation video chat with Flume He’s known for left-field sounds that ping with electricity tracks that are meant to be heard on big, bassy festival sound systems in the early hours of the morning. For the past decade the artist – real name Harley Streten – has crafted fluorescent tunes that have won him a Grammy (second album ‘Skin’ took the trophy for Best Dance/Electronic Album at the 2017 ceremony) and helped him sell out venues across the globe. Flume has perfected his own brand of wonky electronic music.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |