Thomas Fec announced that a rarities compilation album named “Ripe & Majestic” would be released in August 2017. Most know Fec by his stage name, TOBACCO, but the mysterious electronic musician also leads the psychedelic rock group, Black Moth Super Rainbow. Despite his two main projects, along with many others, Fec sticks mainly to analog synthesizers and tape machines for the production of his art. Fec released one of the songs from the upcoming album today, “Slaughtered By The Amway Guy,” which takes its listeners on a dark journey through a demented synthetic wonderland. One won’t find Alice in TOBACCO’s musical landscape, but the Mad Hatter might be tooling around waiting to giving you a tour.

The song is loud and echoey. It sounds as if compressors were left out the studio session entirely, as many of the present sounds have the characteristic fuzz of an instrument played too loudly for a microphone to handle. That being said, the melody is totally clean. The synthetic notes bend upwards and downwards in a hypnotic fashion; the heavy snare and grisly backtrack are clever reminders that the song title involves the word “slaughtered.”

The Fader, after reaching out to TOBACCO regarding some insight into his music, got a response from the artist who rarely allows private interviews.

“Were you to ask a seasoned writer to describe what being on acid with weed is like, they could only reply ‘Look up *acid* in the dictionary, friend… next to that you will find a picture of the artist TOBACCO…”

There you have it. The new album will be available on August 25th, and is set for release in cassette, vinyl, and CD formats. It can be preordered here. Of course, the song will also be available for download. “Slaughtered By The Amway Guy” can be found on Rad Cult’s Soundcloud page. The album can be preordered here. TOBACCO will open for 9 Inch Nails in Bakersfield, California, on July 19th—his first performance in three years.

Tobacco tour dates
7/19 – Bakersfield, CA – Rabobank Arena *
8/18 – Pittsburgh, PA – Spirit
8/24 – Los Angeles, CA – Teragram Ballroom
9/15 – Chicago, IL – Riot Fest
10/12 – 15 Joshua Tree, CA – Desert Daze (as Black Moth Super Rainbow)
* = w/ Nine Inch Nails

Photography credit: Raymond Flotat