The MataBlog is edited by Matador Records’ co-moaner Gerard Cosloy and individual entries are the work of whoever’s name is next to them. If you enjoyed something in the MataBlog, thank you very much! If there was something you found particularly troubling, please be advised that a) maybe you should read it again and b) the contents of this blog do not necessarily represent the opinions of Matador Records, Beggars Group, the combined staff of either company, nor the Matador artist roster. Opinions are like friends — hardly anyone has one worth listening to.
King Krule shares a new single and video for “If Only It Was Warmth,” the latest piece of new music from the highly anticipated forthcoming new album 'Space Heavy',
The wistful, stripped-back instrumentation of “If Only It Was Warmth” comes alongside a self-directed music video that sees King Krule journey across vast waters, with a cactus. Along the way, he is confronted by thoughts of love and lost connection that is presented in the form of dark shadows.
“If Only It Was Warmth” follows the announcement of King Krule’s fourth studio album Space Heavy, which was revealed alongside the release of the album’s first single and music video “Seaforth,” directed by Jocelyn Anquetil. Coming 10 years on from his debut album, Space Heavy is a 15-track full-length that inhabits the deepest reaches of the subterranean sonic world that Archy has constructed over the course of his career as King Krule. Written from 2020 to 2022, between London and Liverpool, Space Heavy took shape over the course of commutes between the two cities where Archy Marshall was splitting his time. In this time, Archy found himself fascinated by the notion of “the space between” - the space haunted by dreams of love, touching a narrative of lost connection, losing people and situations to the guillotine of the universe. The result is King Krule at his most articulate; using his years of experience to create a dynamic body of work that reveals something new with every listen.
Recently, King Krule announced an extensive live tour across US, UK, and Europe. Due to popular demand, today he adds additional shows at The Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, London Eventim Apollo, Paradiso in Amsterdam, Vega in Copenhagen, and Trianon in Paris. Tickets for the world tour are on sale now.
Friday, July 21 First Avenue, Minneapolis MN Saturday, July 22 Pitchfork Music Festival, Chicago IL Sunday, July 23 Masonic, Detroit MI Tuesday, July 25 HISTORY, Toronto ON Wednesday, July 26 Corona Theatre, Montreal QC Friday, July 28 House of Blues, Boston MA Saturday, July 29 9:30 Club, Washington DC Sunday, July 30 Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA Tuesday, August 1 Kings Theatre, Brooklyn NY Wednesday, August 2 Kings Theatre, Brooklyn NY Friday, September 8 Variety, Atlanta GA Saturday, September 9 Brooklyn Bowl, Nashville TN Monday, September 11 White Oak Music Hall, Houston TX Tuesday, September 12 Stubbs, Austin TX Wednesday, September 13 House of Blues, Dallas TX Friday, September 15 Ogden, Denver CO Saturday, September 16 The Depot, Salt Lake City UT Monday, September 18 Roseland, Portland OR Tuesday, September 19 Vogue, Vancouver BC Wednesday, September 20 Paramount, Seattle WA Saturday, September 23 Fox Theater, Oakland CA Sunday, September 24 Palladium, Los Angeles CA Monday, September 25 Palladium, Los Angeles CA (SOLD OUT) Wednesday, October 4 3Olympia, Dublin IE Friday, October 6 Barrowland, Glasgow UK Saturday, October 7 Academy, Manchester UK Monday, October 9 Eventim Apollo, London UK (SOLD OUT) Tuesday, October 10 Eventim Apollo, London UK Monday, October 16 Paradiso, Amsterdam NE (SOLD OUT) Tuesday, October 17 Paradiso, Amsterdam NE Wednesday, October 18 De Roma, Antwerp BE Thursday, October 19 AB, Brussels BE Saturday, October 21 Carlswerk Victoria, Cologne DE Monday, October 23 Vega, Copenhagen DK (SOLD OUT) Tuesday, October 24 Vega, Copenhagen DK Thursday, October 26 Columbiahalle, Berlie DE Friday, October 27 Forum Karlin, Prague CZ Saturday, October 28 Simm City, Vienna AT Monday, October 30 Akvarium Club, Budapest HU Tuesday, October 31 Kino Siska, Ljubljana SL Wednesday, November 1 Tvornica Kultur, Zagreb CR Friday, November 3 Les Docks, Lausanne CH Saturday, November 4 Club to Club Festival, Turin IT Monday, November 6 Trianon, Paris FR
Following last month's announcement of the new LP 'Space Heavy,' King Krule has announced over three dozen live dates in North America and Europe. All fans who have pre-ordered 'Space Heavy' from the King Krule webstore by this Wednesday at 1pm ET will receive access to purchase pre-sale tickets.
King Krule on Tour, General On Sale Friday at 10am Local
Friday, July 21 First Avenue, Minneapolis MN Saturday, July 22 Pitchfork Music Festival, Chicago IL Sunday, July 23 Masonic, Detroit MI Tuesday, July 25 HISTORY, Toronto ON Wednesday, July 26 Corona Theatre, Montreal QC Friday, July 28 House of Blues, Boston MA Saturday, July 29 9:30 Club, Washington DC Sunday, July 30 Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA Tuesday, August 1 Kings Theatre, Brooklyn NY Friday, September 8 Variety, Atlanta GA Saturday, September 9 Brooklyn Bowl, Nashville TN Monday, September 11 White Oak Music Hall, Houston TX Tuesday, September 12 Stubbs, Austin TX Wednesday, September 13 House of Blues, Dallas TX Friday, September 15 Ogden, Denver CO Saturday, September 16 The Depot, Salt Lake City UT Monday, September 18 Roseland, Portland OR Tuesday, September 19 Vogue, Vancouver BC Wednesday, September 20 Paramount, Seattle WA Saturday, September 23 Fox Theater, Oakland CA Monday, September 25 Palladium, Los Angeles CA Wednesday, October 4 3Olympia, Dublin IE Friday, October 6 Barrowland, Glasgow UK Saturday, October 7 Academy, Manchester UK Monday, October 9 Eventim Apollo, London UK Monday, October 16 Paradiso, Amsterdam NE Wednesday, October 18 De Roma, Antwerp BE Thursday, October 19 AB, Brussels BE Saturday, October 21 Carlswerk Victoria, Cologne DE Monday, October 23 Vega, Copenhagen DK Thursday, October 26 Columbiahalle, Berlie DE Friday, October 27 Forum Karlin, Prague CZ Saturday, October 28 Simm City, Vienna AT Monday, October 30 Akvarium Club, Budapest HU Tuesday, October 31 Kino Siska, Ljubljana SL Wednesday, November 1 Tvornica Kultur, Zagreb CR Friday, November 3 Les Docks, Lausanne CH Saturday, November 4 Club to Club Festival, Turin IT Monday, November 6 Trianon, Paris FR
Following a run of sold-out intimate shows as part of his recent SHHH Tour, Archy Marshall announces 'Space Heavy', the fourth studio album under his King Krule alias, due June 9th . Coming 10 years on from his debut album, 'Space Heavy' presents King Krule at his most articulate; using his years of experience to create a dynamic body of work that reveals something new with every listen.
The album’s first single, “Seaforth,” arrives today with an endearing music video directed by visual artist and previous collaborator Jocelyn Anquetil and starring King Krule. The dreamlike, stripped-back melody of “Seaforth” soundtracks a visual that transports us into the sleeping mind of King Krule to be immersed in the adventures of two golden retrievers; a father and his puppy.
Written from 2020 to 2022, between London and Liverpool, 'Space Heavy' took shape over the course of commutes between the two cities where Archy Marshall was splitting his time. Befitting an album quite literally written on the commute between the two places he called home, Archy found himself fascinated by the notion of “the space between” - the space haunted by dreams of love, touching a narrative of lost connection, losing people and situations to the guillotine of the universe. Once written by Archy, the music was developed by frequent collaborator and producer Dilip Harris and long-time band mates Ignacio Salvadores (saxophonist), George Bass (drummer), James Wilson (bass guitarist) and Jack Towell (guitarist).
The result is a 15-track full-length by the musical polymath that inhabits the deepest reaches of the subterranean sonic world that Archy has constructed over the course of his career as King Krule. In it you hear a generational artist stepping into the height of their artistic powers – the auteurism apparent on his debut '6 Feet Beneath The Moon', the shapeshifting sonic palette of 'The OOZ', the primality of 'Man Alive!' and the raw vulnerability expressed on 'You Heat Me Up, You Cool Me Down' all coalesce into a wizened, dynamic body of work that reveals new elements with each listen. In line with Archy’s interest in the space between, it is an album wherein the negative space demands the same attention as the positive space. If one is willing to wade into the mire the reward is rich.
‘Space Heavy’ Tracklist 1. Flimsier 2. Pink Shell 3. Seaforth 4. That Is My Life, That Is Yours 5. Tortoise Of Independency 6. Empty Stomach Space Cadet 7. Flimsy 8. Hamburgerphobia 9. From The Swamp 10. Seagirl 11. Our Vacuum 12. Space Heavy 13. When Vanishing 14. If Only It Was Warmth 15. Wednesday Overcast
Clear vinyl, available at the King Krule / Matador Webstores and at independent record stores
Standard black vinyl, available everywhere
T-shirt, available separately and as a bundle on the King Krule / Matador Webstores
King Krule's live album You Heat Me Up, You Cool Me Down, capturing rare performances from the Man Alive! tour halted by lockdown, is available digitally and physically today on 2xLP vinyl. While supplies last, orders from the Matador webstore will receive a zine cataloging behind-the-scene moments from the tour.
'You Heat Me Up, You Cool Me Down' Tracklist 01. Out Getting Ribs 02. Emergency Blimp 03. A Slide In (New Drugs) 04. The Ooz 05. Cellular 06. Stoned Again 07. Slush Puppy 08. Rock Bottom 09. Comet Face 10. Perfecto Miserable 11. Alone, Omen 3 12. Baby Blue 13. Half Man Half Shark 14. Underclass 15. Energy Fleets 16. Please Complete Thee 17. Easy Easy
September 10th, 2021 at 10:55 am by The Management
Today, King Krule releases his new live album 'You Heat Me Up, You Cool Me Down' via True Panther Sound/Matador Records and also shares an accompanying live film alongside the project's release.
Mere weeks before the world went into lockdown, King Krule had performed a handful of European shows which featured tracks from his critically acclaimed third album Man Alive!Filmed by longtime collaborator and friend Reuben Bastienne-Lewis in Amsterdam and Paris during that short run of shows and other performances captured throughout the years, the near half-hour performance special offers fans a glimpse into a live tour that never was, while also reminding them of the artist's unique stage presence and incredible performances delivered across his entire catalogue.
'You Heat Me Up, You Cool Me Down' features a setlist of 17 songs that span the acclaimed artist’s entire discography including fan favorites “Easy Easy,” “Baby Blue,” "Out Getting Ribs" and more. In addition to the album's upcoming digital release, the project is slated for a physical LP release on December 10th. A very limited amount of LP purchases will be bundled with an exclusive zine featuring tour and BTS photos curated by Archy.
"Once spilt into the cheap 4 tracks and pirate software, now collosos energy redeemed into small diaphragms. Sat on toilets imagining the moment other animals would sing the very vibrations back to them. Climbing a ladder of fulfilment, that fullfills neither need or want, but in ascent maybe the organised grouping of heartbeats pounding into the universe for an hour and a half would not be better spent.
I felt comfortable for once, young and uncomfortable with a tunnel of anxiety to walk through."
(photo : Reuben Bastienne-Lewis)
'You Heat Me Up, You Cool Me Down' Tracklist 01. Out Getting Ribs 02. Emergency Blimp 03. A Slide In (New Drugs) 04. The Ooz 05. Cellular 06. Stoned Again 07. Slush Puppy 08. Rock Bottom 09. Comet Face 10. Perfecto Miserable 11. Alone, Omen 3 12. Baby Blue 13. Half Man Half Shark 14. Underclass 15. Energy Fleets 16. Please Complete Thee 17. Easy Easy
Today, King Krule announces his forthcoming live album 'You Heat Me Up, You Cool Me Down', due out September 10th via True Panther Sound/Matador Records (LP version in stores December 10). In addition, the artist shares the lead single and an accompanying video from the live album, "Stoned Again (Live)." Mere weeks before the world went into lockdown, King Krule had performed a handful of European shows which featured tracks from his critically acclaimed third album 'Man Alive!' Recorded live during that short run of shows, the 'Man Alive!' single “Stoned Again” was taken from a show in Paris. Performed with a ferocious intensity, the recording offers fans a glimpse into a live tour that never was, while also reminding them of the artist's unique stage presence and incredible performances delivered across his entire catalogue.
'You Heat Me Up, You Cool Me Down' features a setlist of 17 songs that span the acclaimed artist’s entire discography including fan favorites “Easy Easy,” “Baby Blue,” "Out Getting Ribs" and more. In addition to the album's upcoming digital release, the project is slated for a physical LP release on December 10th.
"Once spilt into the cheap 4 tracks and pirate software, now collosos energy redeemed into small diaphragms. Sat on toilets imagining the moment other animals would sing the very vibrations back to them. Climbing a ladder of fulfilment, that fullfills neither need or want, but in ascent maybe the organised grouping of heartbeats pounding into the universe for an hour and a half would not be better spent.
I felt comfortable for once, young and uncomfortable with a tunnel of anxiety to walk through."
'You Heat Me Up, You Cool Me Down' Tracklist 01. Out Getting Ribs 02. Emergency Blimp 03. A Slide In (New Drugs) 04. The Ooz 05. Cellular 06. Stoned Again 07. Slush Puppy 08. Rock Bottom 09. Comet Face 10. Perfecto Miserable 11. Alone, Omen 3 12. Baby Blue 13. Half Man Half Shark 14. Underclass 15. Energy Fleets 16. Please Complete Thee 17. Easy Easy
so there's another (possibly less important) campaign happening and we'll be damned if Matador's not gonna figure squarely in the album of the year results. So here's your chance to stuff the (virtual) ballot box and save 25% on any of our vaunted 2020 releases. We're so intent on buying your affections, you can save 25% on anything from the label catalog except preorders.
Today, King Krule is debuting a new video from his latest album 'Man Alive!' Directed by CC Wade and written by CC Wade and Jack Marshall, "Comet Face" taps into the aesthetic of classic horror movies, telling the story of a wild beast terrorizing Peckham, England. The visual features cameos from King Krule's band members, who also played supporting roles in the previous videos for "(Don't Let The Dragon) Draag On" and "Alone, Omen 3" and follows his animated visual for "Cellular," and is his third collaboration with Wade, who also directed "Biscuit Town" from 2017's The Ooz and the 2012 single "Octopus."
Additionally, King Krule is also announcing new "Comet Face" themed merchandise in the form of a t-shirt and print. Purchase at kingkrule.net.
Earlier this year King Krule performed his first live show of new material, right before the release of his third album Man Alive!. Recorded for Echoes, a live music performance show for French TV channel Arte, the performance covered six new tracks from Man Alive! as well as two deep cuts from The OOZ.
A list of of King Krule's recently rescheduled tour dates is below. All tickets for the initial postponed dates will be honored.
King Krule's postponed North American and EU dates in support of the newly released Man Alive! have been rescheduled for September, October and December 2020. Tickets purchased for the shows' original dates will be honored. More info can be found at respective venues, linked below.
The new King Krule album, 'Man Alive' is available today from True Panther / Matador. Stream or purchase here.
Track list :
01. Cellular 02. Supermarché 03. Stoned Again 04. Comet Face 05. The Dream 06. Perfecto Miserable 07. Alone, Omen 3 08. Slinky 09. Airport Antenatal Airplane 10. (Don’t Let The Dragon) Draag On 11. Theme For The Cross 12. Underclass 13. Energy Fleets 14. Please Complete Thee
This morning, King Krule premiered the 3rd single from the forthcoming 'Man Alive!', "Cellular", with a video directed and animated by Jamie Wolfe (above)
(photo : Charlotte Patmore)
'Man Alive!' is out February 21st via True Panther / Matador Records. Catch him on tour across North America in April (dates below)
King Krule has announced listening parties across North America (and Cape Town, South Africa) taking place ahead of the release of the new album, Man Alive! out next Friday, February 21st.
Four stores (Grimey's Nashville, Rough Trade NYC, Park Avenue CDs Orlando and Songbyrd D.C.) will raffle signed test pressings of the new album. The remaining eighteen stores will have one copy each of the standard LP signed by Archy Marshall, raffled off during the listening event. Visit each stores site (listed below) for specific information.
This afternoon (Wednesday, 5 February) King Krule releases "Alone, Omen 3," the second single from his forthcoming album 'Man Alive!'. The track comes with a video directed by Archy Marshall's close friend Jocelyn Anquetil and was co-written by the artist and director.
Featuring Archy surrounded by his friends, band mates, and collaborators, the video backs up the message that "you're not alone." Archy explains: "I felt like I had gotten out of a dark place, and I was on a high. I appreciated the depression... but I also liked how I felt better in the here and now."
On Monday, February 10, NYC's Metrograph Cinema is hosting "An Evening With King Krule", a special marathon screening event with video selections from King Krule and his collaborators, as well as two films that have inspired him: Maya Deren’s experimental "Meshes of the Afternoon" and the landmark French animation "Fantastic Planet". Tickets are available here.
King Krule's third album 'Man Alive!' is out February 21st via True Panther / Matador Records. Catch him on tour across North America in April (dates below)
Following last year's Hey World!video in which Archy Marshall performed acoustic versions of four new songs, King Krule has announced his third studio album titled Man Alive! will be released on February 21, 2020 via Matador/True Panther. Alongside the announcement King Krule has shared his first ever self-directed music video along with the new track "(Don't Let The Dragon) Draag On."
Man Alive! Tracklist 01. Cellular 02. Supermarché 03. Stoned Again 04. Comet Face 05. The Dream 06. Perfecto Miserable 07. Alone, Omen 3 08. Slinky 09. Airport Antenatal Airplane 10. (Don't Let The Dragon) Draag On 11. Theme For The Cross 12. Underclass 13. Energy Fleets 14. Please Complete Thee
Man Alive! will be available on standard vinyl, CD, and as a North American webstore exclusive on limited white vinyl with a bonus flexi disc featuring the Hey World! version of "Perfecto Miserable," while supplies last. An exclusive red vinyl edition will be available at independent record stores as well.
Archy Marshall's longstanding love of cinema seeps out in his first foray into directing, with a video for "(Don't Let The Dragon) Draag On" that pulls influences from Carl Theodor Dreyer's classic The Passion Of Joan Of Arc while still creating a typically wry King Krule visual.
King Krule will tour in support of the new album throughout Europe and North America this Spring. Tickets for all dates below are on sale now.
Archy Ivan Marshall has the world at his feet. After two feverishly received albums as King Krule, plus another low-key outing under his own name, this extraordinarily gifted 25-year-old from Peckham in South London adds further depth and substance to his oeuvre with another wondrous long-player called ‘Man Alive!’. It arrives packed full of his trademark sonic ambition and compositional skill, as well as the now-familiar corrosive lyricism and lurid social observation. Marshall has emerged as a pack leader amongst his peers, leading the charge in a fearless blurring of genre divisions, one minute seeming to drag the listener through the trashiest punk experience, the next ushering in a soundworld that’s apparently hi-tech and forward-looking.
Like any great artist on the rise, Archy’s life is moving fast. There’s a lot to catch up on, after 2017’s sprawling masterpiece, ‘The Ooz’, broke through amid Mercury Prize nominations and minds-blown media plaudits. Unlike that record, ‘Man Alive!’ doesn’t aim to present any kind of narrative thread, or Brexit-era state-of-the-nation address, just a collection of snapshots and stories, artfully sequenced into a dazzlingly coherent whole.
This third King Krule album was written as a direct reaction to the non-stop energy of touring ‘The Ooz’, and then partly recorded at Shrunken Heads in Marshall’s native stamping ground of Nunhead, with ‘Ooz’ co-producer Dilip Harris. Increasingly self-sufficient in the studio, he manned most of the instruments himself, except for the saxophone, which was played by his trusty Argentinian amigo, Ignacio Salvadores.
Midway through those sessions, however, Archy found out he was going to become a dad for the first time, and he decided to move up to the North West to be near the mother’s family, ready for the baby’s arrival.
“I should’ve had it all wrapped up before my daughter was born,” says Marshall today with a sheepish grin, during a return visit to his favourite public house in Nunhead, right across the street from Shrunken Heads. Impending parenthood came at a felicitous moment for him, as he was beginning to feel trapped in South London’s suburban lifestyle of all-eclipsing drunkenness and depression, which existing fans will know was a recurring theme in his earlier music.
“It was just the easiness of it,” he reflects today. “There really is nothing else to do here, especially when it turns to winter. Everyone I know has jobs, whereas I’d sit on my arse all day sometimes not doing anything, then I’d go to the pub with them when they finished work. It became a bit habitual. Then, right in the middle of the record, this big change came in my life that I didn't really comprehend initially. It was like, ‘Oh, I’d better get my shit together!’ To be honest, I was really glad to get away from all that so I could focus on more pressing matters – like keeping a child alive and stuff.”
Tracks on ‘Man Alive!’ like ‘Stoned Again’, ‘Comet Face’ and ‘(Don’t Let The Dragon) Draag On’ soberingly document the final throes of Archy’s dissolute times, but once he had relocated, he cracked on with recording at Eve Studios in Stockport.
So, after his daughter, Marina, arrived on 14 March 2019, Marshall took a few weeks off, then returned to finish off his album. “I was still adding tracks until she was about six months old (i.e mid-September),” he says. Still, the songs are very much a document of pre-fatherhood, and the need for change, rather than the new life that ensued.
The new album’s title, he explains, “is an exclamation, about the times we live in. Like, ‘Fucking hell, man!’” He stole the title from a CD that his uncle gave him back in 2013 with some of his uncle’s own music on it, and originally planned to use it for his last album. “But ‘The Ooz’ really summed up that record,” he reasons, “just this splurge of everything I love – messy and with no direction. I thought, anyway, ‘Nah, I can’t steal it off him’, but now I'm like, ‘Fuck it, I'm gonna use it!’ I haven't really spoken to him about it actually. I just liked the idea of it as an exclamation. It's kind of like, ‘Oh shit!’, but I didn't wanna call it that, I wanted it to be ‘Man Alive!’ – super-Americanized, like a saying from Adam West as Batman.”
This time, however, he says he felt a strong aversion towards politicizing any of his observations, so there’s little explanation, just the relaying of potent images, such as the fancy cars on ‘Stoned Again’ which signify the gentrification – or what he calls the ‘woo-woo’ – of Peckham, or the vile Brexit-era prejudice he overhears on ‘Supermarché.
“More and more,” he explains, “I've been put off by the intention of speaking about what's going on in society as a black-and-white thing, or trying to get to the bottom of why we’re in this position. So the album is mostly made up of snapshots and observations. There are a lot of real-time-and-place moments, songs talking about walking through the park just over there and getting a head injury [don’t ask! – Ed.], then there are other tracks which are just simplicity, looking at one particular situation and reflecting on it as somehow being super-profound.”
Just as the lyrics are diverse in theme and purpose, so is the music: ‘Comet Face’ lopes along with irresistible unease like a wonky New Wave hit, and ‘Stoned Again’ packs all the inspired beatmongery of ’90s hip hop, while much of the record’s sparser second half recalls the lo-fi intimacy of Robert Wyatt’s ’80s solo work, or indeed the recordings of mass-murderer Charles Manson.
“I’ve been listening to a lot of weird stuff, I guess. There was some Argentinian music, some Brazilian Bossa Nova – I love the way they sing, how soft they are. I also listened to the radio, which I never did until recently. I don't like it but I suppose it might influence me a bit.”
Archy laughs at mention of the word ‘lo-fi’, and gives a characteristically self-effacing insight into his unique methods of production: “Ever since I began, people have said, ‘You’re like a lo-fi artist, you do this bedroom thing,’ when really I was trying to make really hi-fi, top-of-the-range recordings – I just didn't have the equipment! All the equipment I have could possibly make a hi-fi product, but I suppose what I do is start with something that’s basic, like a demo, then I coat things in effects and run things through amps and back out through tiny speakers. I end up making it sound like it's coming out of a fucking telephone in the end! One time I remember feeling convinced I was making music like Flying Lotus, this super hi-fi hip-hop production, but actually when I listened back in the morning, it was more like Daniel Johnston, like it was recorded on a Dictaphone, and played on some old broken keyboard.”
But he was determined to fashion a more concise album this time: “There was a lot that didn't make it onto this record, because it didn't seem to fit with the shell of it. In the end it's only 40 minutes, and I was quite happy about that because I didn't go over the top, like I did with ‘The Ooz’ [running time: 67 minutes]. This one makes more sense if you listen in total, because you start quite fast-paced and aggressive, then it takes more of a back seat for the rest, and gets heart-warming towards the end. Happy endings!”
As the concluding ‘Please Complete Thee’ sails out on upliftingly twangsome slide guitar, you’d be forgiven for imagining that some of the more agonizing preceding numbers have served as a kind of therapy for their creator. “Oh yeah,” he freely admits, “once you’re able to discuss things and talk honestly, there is no better way than just shouting it out at a bunch of people. I was always empowered by lyricism and getting my aggression out in some way, or any kind of emotion. That has always been a process for me. This time I felt like I had gotten out of a dark place, and I was on a high. I appreciated the depression, and the low times I’d been through, but I also liked how I felt better in the here and now. So it was about reaching that new plateau.”
As he prepares for his latest campaign with ‘Man Alive!’, Archy says, “I feel better in life. I don’t drink or smoke when I’m in the North West, so I’m pretty clean. It's made me kind of bored of what a lot of the album’s talking about! It’s hard to know where it’s going now I’ve done it, and what I’ll do next, because of my new-found role and responsibility in the world. It'll be good to play live, I'm looking forward to that. The tour is coming up in March, so, yeah, I need to get onto that!” He laughs at his own lack of forward planning, then concludes with hard-won assurance. “I might get a pint in a bit, but I’ll still take it easy.”
Praise for his latest, deftly sculpted King Krule meisterwerk, though, is likely to be a good deal wilder.
It's been a year since King Krule released his Mercury Prize-nominated LP The OOZ. While touring in support of the album at the beginning of 2018, King Krule recorded "Live On The Moon," a live video session in collaboration with Molten Jets. Today he's announced a picture disc LP, limited to an edition of 350, culled from that performance. Preorders are available now for this vinyl-only release via the King Krule webstore and will ship on November 2.
Today King Krule releases a music video for "Biscuit Town," the opening track from his Mercury Prize nominated album 'The OOZ'. The video comes as the first of a three-part collaboration with WeTransfer, which sees King Krule explore the creative process with each video’s director, hosted on their WePresent platform. Directed by friends and long-term collaborators cc. Wade (aka Michael and Paraic Morrissey), the video sees King Krule (aka Archy Marshall) inhabiting his own noir "Biscuit Town” — waking up and retracing his footsteps through the city, piecing together the remnants of a hazy, half-remembered night before. A reflection of his futuristic, jazz-inflected, film-inspired sound, the video serves to compliment the warm, dreamlike quality of "Biscuit Town."
Following King Krule's recent U.S. tour announcement surrounding both weekends of Coachella, Molten Jets has released "King Krule: Live On The Moon," an exclusive session featuring King Krule's full group performing eight tracks from The OOZ. Watch the video at the newly launched website where you can also find a mysterious link to some 12" Moon Rocks, see upcoming dates, and purchase an exclusive webstore-only baseball cap designed by Archy's brother Jack Marshall.
In addition to previously announced Coachella appearances, King Krule returns to North America in April. Dates are below with tickets on sale Friday at noon local times.
A couple weeks after delivering The OOZ to the world, King Krule dropped by the All Songs Considered offices in Washington D.C. to perform a stripped version of some of the new material. Several weeks and about 30 sold-out shows across the U.S. and Europe later, the video premieres today. Watch as Archy and the band manage to transform the sunny NPR office into a dingy South London pub with the tracks, "Midnight 01 (Deep Sea Diver), Lonely Blue, and a combination of "Logos" and "Sublunary."
KING KRULE ON TOUR Wednesday, December 6 Vega, Copenhagen DK *SOLD OUT* Friday, December 8 Vasateatern, Stockholm SE *SOLD OUT* Sunday, December 10 Welkweg, Amsterdam NE *SOLD OUT* Monday, December 11 De Roma, Antwerp BE *SOLD OUT* Wednesday, December 13 Academy, Dublin IE *SOLD OUT* Thursday, December 14 Academy 2, Manchester UK *SOLD OUT* Friday, December 15 SWG3, Glasgow UK *SOLD OUT*
The MataBlog is edited by Matador Records’ co-moaner Gerard Cosloy and individual entries are the work of whoever’s name is next to them. If you enjoyed something in the MataBlog, thank you very much! If there was something you found particularly troubling, please be advised that a) maybe you should read it again and b) the contents of this blog do not necessarily represent the opinions of Matador Records, Beggars Group, the combined staff of either company, nor the Matador artist roster. Opinions are like friends — hardly anyone has one worth listening to.
