ANNOUNCES TORONTO, OTTAWA, MONTREAL TOUR DATES SUPPORTING BEIRUT BEGINNING JULY 25
NEW ALBUM, CULT FOLLOWING, AVAILABLE NOW ON DINE ALONE
WATCH AND SHARE “DARK DANCE” HERE VIA NOISEY
LISTEN TO CULT FOLLOWING IN FULL HERE
"This is an artist in flux, in constant motion, searching for answers and finding many in her own music. There is wit as well as whimsy and wonder on Cult Following, a quirky, affecting, richly detailed album that deserves more than its title." The Guardian
“complex and luminous… a magnificent panoply of sound” The Globe And Mail
"Bigger, bolder and wholly encompassing in its creation...Cult Following is a brand new horizon." DIY
“what might transpire if St. Vincent covered the Bee Gees... It’s immaculate” Pitchfork
“ambitious symphonic arrangements …a kaleidoscope of sounds” NOW Magazine
PHOTO CREDIT : CHRISTOPHER WAHL
Today, Little Scream - aka Montreal-based Laurel Sprengelmeyer - shares the accompanying visuals for “Dark Dance”. It marks the second track from her acclaimed second album Cult Following, available now on Dine Alone Records, to receive its visual dues, following on from the heady, intoxicating clip for lead single “Love as a Weapon”. The video, funded by MuchFACT, premiered today via Noisey, who claims it’s "packed with bruised tales of transformation and heartbreak, 'Dark Dance' is a quietly cathartic standout on the album.”
WATCH AND SHARE “DARK DANCE” HERE VIA NOISEY
Of the track, Sprengelmeyer says, “one night I found myself dancing alone down an alleyway, singing in the dark. The further I walked down it, the further I sunk into my memory until I felt like I might actually step into my past when I emerged on the other side. This song was born there, it starts in the present and each verse moves further into the past. The main loop in the song is from an iPhone recording I made – it's a very lo-fi gentle thing that I got really attached to, everything else was built around it.”
Meanwhile, director Lee Skinner elaborates, "'Dark Dance' is ostensibly a music video about the rhythms of attachment, anxiety, and courage in an obscure future. But that just represents the cooled platelets that form on the surface. It’s the turbulent mantle underneath, composed of a dreadful wonder of the natural universe, that drives those outer elements. How do we act in the face of such mystery? Do we worship it? Do we endeavour to profit from it? Do we vow to destroy it? Or do we simply bask in its violet light with a dance partner? That’s what lies at the core for our protagonists. Having the capacity to run and jump. To be sad, mad, and silly. To agree and disagree harmoniously in a dance at the threshold to the void."
All of which are words that could just as easily apply to Cult Following in its entirety. The album sees Mary Margaret O’Hara, Sufjan Stevens, Sharon Van Etten, Aaron and Bryce Dessner from the National, Owen Pallett, and Kyp Malone all make guest appearances on the album, but the world they inhabit is entirely Little Scream’s. Her voice acts as a tour guide through lush sonic landscapes carefully constructed with her creative partner, Arcade Fire's Richard Reed Parry, and while the duo - alongside their heady cast of collaborators - dance across myriad moods and styles, what runs through Cult Following to its core is a sense of giddy creation and joyous experimentation in the face of an increasingly frightening world.
CULT FOLLOWING TRACKLIST
1. Welcome to the Brain
2. Love as a Weapon
3. Dark Dance
4. Introduction to Evan
5. Evan
6. Aftermath
7. The Kissing
8. Wishing Well
9. Wreckage
10. Someone Will Notice
11. Silent Moon
12. Goodbye Every Body
TOUR DATES
Jul 12 - San Francisco, CA @ Swedish American Hall
Jul 14 - Portland, OR @ Bunk Bar
Jul 15 - Seattle, WA @ Barboza
Jul 16-17 - Vancouver, BC @ Vancouver Folk Festival
Jul 22 - New York, NY @ Panorama Music and Arts Festival
Jul 23 - Oro-Medonte, ON @ WayHome Music & Arts Festival
July 25 - Toronto, ON @ The Phoenix*
July 26 - Ottawa, ON @ Algonquin Commons Theatre*
July 28 - Montreal, QC @ Corona Theatre*
Jul 30 - Sackville, NB @ Sappy Fest
Aug 12 - Eau Claire, WI @ Eaux Claires Festival
Oct 28-30 - New Orleans, LA @ Voodoo Music Experience
* w/ Beirut
MORE ABOUT CULT FOLLOWING :
Little Scream's Laurel Sprengelmeyer says she began conceiving of Cult Following while visiting a friend in a small intentional community in northern Brazil that was on the verge of becoming a cult. “People were running around reading auras, interpreting each other’s dreams, and ‘living on light’ instead of eating — which was as compelling as it was absurd. I became very aware of the entropy of belief. You could feel the magnetism of ideas take shape and pull people into their center like a black hole… a thing so filled with light that its own gravity means that none of it can escape.” That experience laid the groundwork for Cult Following, a lush, expansive, retro-leaning gem.
With nods to Tina Turner, Tracey Thorn, and White Album-era Beatles, Cult Following ambitiously straddles intimate fragility with bombastic dancefloor-ready songs. It stuffs glorious eras of art pop into a weird modern package—a far more extroverted expansion of the cinematic landscapes and themes from Little Scream’s previous album, The Golden Record. Sprengelmeyer elaborates: “The first record was a ‘bedroom adventure,’ as in, songs you write in your bedroom without a real consciousness of them ever being public. With this record, I was really engaged with what it meant to be a ‘songwriter’ and performer, and pushed myself to go further on all fronts.”
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