Experimental rock/electronic outfit Liars announced a new album called The Apple Drop, which is set to release on August 6 through Mute. A new video for the lead single, “Sekwar,” is out today.
“Sekwar” is a moody, cinematic track that seems to be about a search for identity, hard times and lost memory. It starts with a repetitive synth line that continues throughout, equally as big a part of the rhythm as the song’s shuffling drums. It’s structured in phases, beginning and ending with a half-spoken verse and a call to fight, with a dramatic bridge in the middle.
Clemens Habicht directed the music video, which shows Angus Andrew exploring a cave system. As Andrew enters a spacious cavern, he lights up a flare and stands on a scenic rock as Habicht and the crew capture him from across the chamber during the climactic middle section of the song. The video becomes more abstract after Andrew is seen putting together some kind of device that distorts its surroundings.
Andrew has been the only member of Liars since Aaron Hemphill left the band in 2017. Although he made 2017’s TFCF, 2018’s Titles With the Word Fountain and the 1/1 film soundtrack on his own, he decided to collaborate with avant-garde jazz drummer Laurence Pike, multi-instrumentalist Cameron Deyell and lyricist Mary Pearson Andrew as he started this new album.
“My goal was to create beyond my abilities – something bigger than myself,” He stated. “For the first time I embraced collaboration from an early stage, allowing the work of others to influence the work of my own.”
From there, he explained some of the themes he and his wife Mary Pearson Andrew had developed, “Momentum and revolution were themes I wanted to explore, to give the listener this sense of transformation and to feel like you were being transported through the wormhole.” Judging from “Sekwar,” it still compares sonically to his previous two records, but the mix of in-studio live instrumentation and Angus Andrew’s post-recording production is said to turn it into more of a blend between traditional band structure and electronic experimentation.
Andrew says that The Apple Drop comes from a personal place as he tries to realign himself and reconfigure how that comes through in Liars. He states, “Throughout Liars’ history I have consistently tried to develop new methods of creating music. On each project I’ve essentially abandoned previous methods and attempted to instead learn different ways of writing and producing songs. Where once I perceived this journey as a straight line, I’m increasingly realising my trajectory is more akin to a spiral. As new ideas are generated, older ones take on new meaning and evolve further.”
Liars had originally been a four-piece rock band when they first formed in 2000. However, bassist Pat Noecker and drummer Ron Albertson left the group in 2002, and replacement drummer Julian Gross eventually left the group in 2014 after playing with them for 12 years. Multi-instrumentalist Aaron Hemphill had been one of the key members since 2000, but left Andrew to be the last man standing in 2017. They split up on good terms, and Hemphill later released a solo project as Nonpareils.
The Apple Drop Tracklist:
1. The Start
2. Slow and Turn Inward
3. Sekwar
4. Big Appetite
5. From What the Never Was
6. Star Search
7. My Pulse to Ponder
8. Leisure War
9. King of the Crooks
10. Acid Crop
11. New Planets New Undoings
Photo credit: Raymond Flotat
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