CLASH Deputy Editor Shahzaib Hussain navigates the cosmos of the newest, most essential alternative releases in this Astral Realm feature; a liminal space for those seeking mood music beyond the mainstream. Each roundup features a Focus Artist interview, a Next Wave artist spotlight, and a curated selection of the month’s noteworthy releases.
—
Focus Artist: Paris Texas
Los Angeles duo Paris Texas, the musical brainchild of Louie Pastel and Felix, have written a new punk-rap manifesto: ‘They Left Me With The Sword’ and ‘They Left Me With A Gun’. Surprised-released in the span of one week at the end of February, Paris Texas intermix camp horror, tales of suburbia, medieval kinks and sci-fi Synesthesia in a thrilling two-parter.
Re-integrating “the voice” – the Great orator and benevolent guide that appears on the Epilogue to 2021 EP ‘Red Handed Akimbo’ – Paris Texas live out their far-flung fantasies in an anthology work that speaks to their synergy as co-creators, and the widening gulf between their dreams and their desire to preserve relationships at odds with their fast ascending trajectories. Tenacious emcees, exuberant singers, awe-inspiring producers, Paris Texas level up on a fable of dream chasing and the deliriousness that comes with embarking on that fated journey.
In conversation, the Louis Pastel and Felix open up on symbiosis, embracing collaboration, what touring with Tyler, The Creator is really like, and the subtle art of balancing spontaneity, haywire humour and charged rejoinders about industry monomania and peers who are artistically-neutered.
—
—
I’m so glad I get to speak to you at a creatively fertile period in your career. You’ve just released arguably your strongest work in the space of one week. Are you online people? Are you aware of the reactions in real-time?
Felix: Thank you. We often hear stuff from our team. I don’t be online like that. I don’t go online to see what people are thinking. The only notification I really don’t fuck with is when people like your stories. I wish I could turn it off!
What is your process as a duo? Do you write together? Do you separately and then fuse your ideas together?
Louie Pastel: It’s a process we usually start together; from a scratch beat and whoever has the first idea goes. It feels like math. It’s like a hard ass equation that we help each other figure out. We’re doing math together.
Are you usually aligned in your sound and what you’d like to convey? Are there points of contention between you two?
Louie Pastel: On the occasion that we’re not aligned, it doesn’t take too long to figure it out. If one of us is more excited about something, the other will always come around eventually.
Your earlier SoundCloud-era works are cult releases. From this vantage point, years on, do you see releases like ‘Boy Anonymous’ as crucial building blocks?
Louie Pastel: We’re still very proud of them. The process hasn’t changed all the much. I will say with the early stuff I could tell what I was influenced by, like hearing a song we made in 2018 and picking out all those SoundCloud influences. There was only one song with guitar, which was an interlude, and that’s been the genesis of who we are today.
And ‘Mid Air’ solidified you as these unpredictable progressive punk poets. What about ‘Mid Air’ are you most proud of?
Louie Pastel: There was a lot going on during that time, we went through a lot of shit. So we’re super proud of what we created and overcame.
Felix: The writing is what I’m most proud of. I’m never sure about the lyrical side of things until I look back at it afterwards. There’s a sense of comfort I get when I listen to ‘Mid Air’. It does feel like a blur though.
Take me back to when the seeds of this anthology project started to germinate. Am I right that you created it leading up to the tour?
Louie Pastel: I’d say it started in July last year. We didn’t conceive of it then as two EPs, we were just making music. At some point, we knew we wanted something bigger. We don’t record well when we’re on tour. We made one EP, and then we made two. There was a lot of – fuck it, lets do this mad thing.
You’re both conceptualists and storytellers. What was on the moodboard when you were recording? What eras and influences were you splicing together into this narrative-driven project?
Louie Pastel: There was no moodboard per se. When we were done with the two EPs, it became a crazy game of madlibs. We just wanted to make it entertaining and also confuse people. Even the decision to release the two EPs one week after the other was down to the fact that we wanted to shock, surprise and even make some people angry. We’re not the most famous artists in the world, but for the fans and the listeners finding us for the first time, we’re always thinking: what haven’t people seen and heard? That’s often my thought process. What haven’t they experienced before?
Felix: I was listening to a lot of shit. Billy Lemos would have a lot of video game play throughs on the screen. We’d be debating what games were great back in the day; we were nostalgic for the ones we used to play. I was listening to a lot of trelly connor.
Much of this EP was co-produced with the likes of Billy Lemos and Dilip – these forward-facing producers who don’t sit in one pocket of sound. What was the synergy like in the studio?
Louie Pastel: We’d start by playing the guitar. It was a process of Billy and co giving us a helping hand. Billy would want to make the song as quickly as possible. It felt like our first big collaborative experience; we had Billy, Dilip, Will Sullivan, Matt Cohn…
Felix: Billy isn’t a new entity. Don’t sleep on him. He’s a good guy and when he gets in his bag he gets really active. He’s a monster.
Throughout the EPs we hear this voice asking existential questions and guiding the narrative. What does the voice represent to you?
Felix: ‘Red Handed Akimbo’ is when we started playing with voices and narration. It’s a nod to how we’ve been recording lately, whilst getting used to the intense nature of touring. It feels like a nice thing to make everything cohesive.
The voice creeps up at random points you wouldn’t expect..
Felix: Kind of like a DJ host, right? It’s implementing the voice in a humorous way.
Louie Pastel: It’s like a guiding spirit. We’re on this adventure fighting through all the bullshit. And then this voice is like: here we go!
Felix: It’s the closest we get to the challenges we’re facing. These are the brief tutorials on how we navigate them.
‘Infinyte’ was the first prelude, this garage rock escapade that packs in some autobiographical details. Tell me a bit about what this track captures?
Felix: We made it on an SM58. We reference a bunch of stuff and I remember the period of time vividly. I was in the process of moving and I’d got rid of my childhood home. So it references that unfinished feeling, of being in-between modes of being.
Louie Pastel: I wanted it to feel like an Alien Ant Farm song, like the songs from my childhood I don’t hear anymore. The groove just didn’t stop, even with the hook.
—
—
I have to single out ‘Holy Spinal Fluid’. The production is terrific, the grizzled guitar amped up and undulating throughout…
Louie Pastel: We did that song with Dilip and Kenny Beats. Kenny gets us to rap as hard as possible. I kind of regret the way I rapped, it sounds too animated. But he always wants us to be animated! We were just straight rapping on there. Like people get mad at our bars because we do funny shit. People get mad when we have fun. But it’s all about the guitar! We kind of didn’t want it to sound like a Paris Texas song.
‘They Left Me With The Sword’ and ‘They Left Me With A Gun’ explore antithetical forces – the polarities that make Paris Texas so special. In your own words, what are the main distinctions between both EPs?
Louie Pastel: With the first one, it has more nods to traditional and contemporary rap: the version of things we know to exist. There’s a trap song and the synths are Tyler-esque. We have bop songs on there, or our version of bops. Together, the EPs feel more mature than our past songs. It’s a sample of what’s to come…
In the short films there’s a focus on twins and symbiosis. We see you conjoined and we see the sword sever you in two and you assume form as separate entities. Talk me through the visual language here.
Felix: We were ruminating on the idea of what the ‘gun’ and ‘sword’ represented in this story. We didn’t really know what it was at first but it eventually spun from the idea of how we’re perceived on camera – like on photo shoots. People are always saying ‘come closer, you’re so far apart’. What happens if we melt into one another? How would that look? The rest of the visual came from this feeling of being conjoined.
There’s always been a mystery around who you are. Is that something you consciously engineer?
Louie Pastel: No, I want to be famous! I’m kidding. It’s never that intentional. We’re just not camera-facing guys. A lot of our interviews are written. We’ve never done freestyles on video. So, the mystery gets created as a result.
Felix: I like our emergence. It feels organic. I like the sunlight and like how we’re being perceived. We are more visible by virtue of being on a sold-out world tour. And then releasing two EPs and videos in the space of one week.
The track ‘Twin Geeker’ hits you in the proverbial. What was the influence behind this one?
Louie Pastel: That one was last minute. A spontaneous creation. Billy did this drum loop, I played guitar on it and the rest flowed. How absurd can I get with the sounds here? It felt crazy but also it was the simplest one to make.
The entire experience hinges on the closer, ‘No Strings’. It’s typically humorous but there’s some soul-searching going on here…
Louie Pastel: It’s about trying to find love in this game. You can’t have real relationships in this business and you can’t give your all. We both love women, we love bonds, we love the feeling of being in a loving relationship. But then you have this job that calls for so much of your time and you end up being a disappointment. It’s hard feeling like you let people down. The part of your brain that’s creative and artistic is also the part of the brain where you love. You have to put just as much time in; you come home from the studio and you’re exhausted but your partner doesn’t quite understand why. We were both tired of letting people down. It’s kind of a weird apology.
I felt you fully embraced the singing part of your repertoire across this project more than before?
Felix: Singing is fun for everybody. We love making dumb ass jingles. The good singing, often the hooks, comes from random experimentation, when we’re not thinking about it too much. We liked singing on ‘No Strings’ because there was space. It’s not my natural style but often we’re told it sounds good. It’s working I guess. Louie’s singing on ‘Red Eyes’ is a highlight for me.
If you had to choose a track or EP you favour, what would it be?
Louie Pastel: Can’t do that. It’s our kids. It has been fun to see the reaction, it feels like there’s a real divide. Which is kind of the point, you know? I’ll say I pick a side depending on who I’m around.
As fans and casual listeners experience these two EPs in tandem, what would you like them to take away? What does this work tell us about where you are on your journey?
Louie Pastel: This is a ‘shut the fuck up’ to a lot of people. We’re still here, so relax. Even though it was a surprise no promo release, don’t take it so on the face. Just vibe with us for a second. We had fun with it, so that’s what we’d say to anyone about to listen.
Felix: I will say there’s been a point a lot of people have been missing. Since we’ve emerged with our class of peers and artists, people have gotten complacent. We led with more intention on these two EPs. This isn’t an album but we still delivered. Let’s be serious. Hopefully people can take notes because the void was too big. There’s a lot of bullshitting in the game. There are no rules, that’s what everyone needs to understand. And I believe everyone is so much more talented than what they’re making. I’m hoping this makes people envious with the intention of progression. We’re going crazy and we’re not even home. Step it up!
Being on tour with Tyler, The Creator, what have you seen, heard and been witness to that you find inspiring? Is he at the peak of his performance powers?
Louie Pastel: We’re from the same lineage. It’s impressive seeing him at that level. He makes everyone up their game. Sometimes the crowds aren’t as lit as they should be but he doesn’t care, he’s uncompromising with his shit. He’ll be good until he dies.
Felix: From our perspective, it’s interesting to see when the energy fluctuates. Tyler will make changes as the tour progresses. He’s always watching and learning. It’s interesting to see his performance mode, but also the camera choices, the visuals, the stage design. It’s important for us to see our own synergy as performers as well. So far, it’s been good but it’s still early in the tour schedule. There’ll be a time when we’re on the road for a prolonged period of time and it’ll feel like we’re really embarking.
—
—
Next Wave: PARTYOF2
Formerly grouptherapy., SWIM and Jadagrace chart their rebirth as PARTYOF2, returning with a renewed potency.
Just three tracks long, their new, aptly-titled EP ‘we owe you an explanation’ is a eulogy to the departed but also a coiled and clipped new declaration; ripping through new jack swing, funk Carioca, noise rap, organic, conscientious rap and more with editorial rigour. Unshackled from past traumas, ‘we owe you an explanation’ showcases the LA duo’s abiding friendship. Together they co-engineer a sound that pops and fizzes with playground chants, wistful rambles, stylised vocal yelps, and mantra-like affirmations.
Mining through the dissolution of their original line-up, contemplating vicissitude, loss and the after-effects of grief, PARTYOF2 have re-emerged with one mission only: to entertain.
—
—
grouptherapy. is now PARTYOF2. A lot has transpired in the intervening years. You distill the fallout, transforming from a trio to a duo, and all the complex feelings it entails on the prelude single ‘all 4 the best’. Did it feel cathartic? Did it feel like you were reliving the trauma again?
‘all 4 the best’ is the most important record we’ve ever made. It was extremely cathartic, but it felt more like releasing the hurt and pain instead of necessarily reliving it. Remember it’s been over a year that we’ve been a duo, so a lot of that time was spent processing and healing, leading to eventually finishing this song and making sure we expressed everything we wanted to say on the record.
Did both of you approach and deal with the end of what was in different ways? Did you have different coping mechanisms?
Music is our coping mechanism, which is how ‘all 4 the best’ came together. Of course, we’re two different people so we process our emotions differently, but since it was a unique experience to both of us and only us, we really leaned into our creative outlets to help us process, recover and grow together.
‘all 4 the best’ takes cues from classic rap. Was it important for the first song back as a duo to be stripped back to the core?
Our intention going into this release was to be as open and honest as we possibly could. In order to heal you have to strip down to the most vulnerable version of yourself you can find. We love colouring outside the lines when it comes to production, but this felt like a moment to return to our hip-hop roots and build a soundscape that caters to the honesty of the lyrics.
The video takes you from a therapy session to outside holding celebratory balloons. It already feels you’re establishing your own visual language, separate from what came before.
This video was different for us because again, we wanted to keep everything simple and make sure whoever was watching pays more attention to what we’re saying rather than what they’re seeing. The visual was just meant to enhance the feeling behind the record and provide a visual of where we are right now: healing together and hoping for the best. The visuals going forward are going to be a little different. We can only be “simple” for so long, so we’re excited to make some of our wild visual ideas come to life when it’s time for the album.
As you reintroduce yourselves, are you more aware of the roles each of you play? Is there a sense of trepidation because of what transpired or are you both very much aligned?
Music saved our lives. We’ll always be aligned because we don’t view this as our job. It’s how we survive. So, ultimately we knew if we were going to continue, it would be together. We discovered pretty quickly that becoming a duo made more room for both of us to explore our individuality. So many of our inspirations and interests overlap, but lately we’ve been leaning into the things we don’t have in common. It’s created space for a lot of new unexpected ideas. It’s been fun having more room to play and experiment with our sound.
The EP ‘we owe you an explanation’ is a declaration of intent. It makes clear that you’d like to steer the narrative whilst also assuaging your core listeners’ concerns. Talk me through the choice of the title and when that lightbulb moment occurred?
It sort of was right in front of us. We wanted it to be to the point. At first, we were playing with other names that sounded cool but didn’t feel right. SWIM eventually said should we just name it ‘we owe you an explanation’. As a trio, we were very open about our friendship, it felt like we opened it up for our fans to be a part of. It only felt right to be honest about the change we went through and how it affected us, because we knew it was going to affect them. So instead of finding a fun or trendy title for the EP, we thought, why not just call it exactly what it is, an explanation.
What’s it like being on the Def Jam roster? Are you surrounded by a team that seeks to collaborate and amplify what makes PARTYOF2 so unique?
This isn’t our first rodeo. We knew going into it Tunji sees our vision, and the team we’ve been working with is fully supporting the world we’re building with PARTYOF2. In its early years, Def Jam was at the forefront of pushing the boundaries of music, from Public Enemy and Beastie Boys, to Hose and Run-DMC. We feel very aligned with the core DNA of the label, and we’re excited to have a partner that’s looking to amplify our left-of-centre sound.
—
—
When you were recording the EP what were you listening to? What was on the sonic moodboard? What were you inspired by?
We listened to a lot of early hip-hop and R&B during this process. Lot’s of Bell Biv Devoe, Slick Rick, and 3LW. Charli xcx, Tyler, The Creator, Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar are some of the more recent artists that have been on repeat as well.
Talk me through the recording process: How long did it take? Was there a period of revision?
After we became a duo, our only goal was to lock ourselves in the studio until we felt like we had something worth sharing with the world. ‘mad love’ and ‘poser’ came together fairly quickly. ‘all 4 the best’ took almost a year to finish. We started working on that song pretty early into our transition as a duo, but it felt like the more we healed and grew as a people, the more we were able to chip away at the lyrics. We typically always start with production first but that was a record where the lyrics were a priority. We took our time writing it, and eventually created the beat around it that helped amplify the story.
Tell us a bit about your co-creators/producers on this EP?
Dane and Dave are producers we started working with shortly before turning in this EP. We cranked some crazy songs out with them very quickly. We worked through the beat switches on ‘all 4 the best’ together because we wanted it to paint a picture of what the healing process feels like. ‘poser’ wasn’t even supposed to be on the EP, but one night we started making it with Dane and Dave and knew we had to have it on there.
For ‘mad love’, Lodoni sent us a beat pack and that “WHO’S MAD AT ME” with the bass was a loop we came across and immediately loaded it into Ableton. That one was the first record we’ve ever made with most of our production, so we’re really proud of that one. We’re excited to show off more of us as producers on the next project.
From the off, the listener experiences the full gamut of your sound on ‘mad love’, which feels like three different tracks in one. Talk me through the sonic journey you go on with ‘mad love’?
‘mad love’ is one of our favourite tracks we’ve ever done. It started with a simple sample that set the tone for what the energy was going to be. We were in the studio and SWIM was watching Martin on TV. He loved the theme song so much and thought “Why don’t we throw in some new jack swing?” We spent a few hours building the drums and then we sat with it for a few weeks. We knew we wanted the song to shapeshift into something else but couldn’t figure out the direction. One day we were watching a Zack Fox DJ set, and he mixed a Gospel Praise song into a Baile funk record. We both looked at each other and knew exactly what we had to do. ‘mad love’ is a perfect song to explain us as a duo. It’s a melting pot of our influences and we couldn’t be prouder of the production work we accomplished.
Who are you addressing on the track ‘poser’? Who and what are you reacting to?
On the surface, ‘poser’ is about calling someone out for not being authentic. It’s a braggadocious and energetic record that’s aimed at anyone in your life who you feel doesn’t have your back. But on it’s underbelly, the song is about acknowledging the “poser” within yourself. It’s about dealing with imposter syndrome and that voice in your head that says “you don’t belong here”.
You’ve consistently explored the mythology of Los Angeles in your work. In your own words, what about LA do you love and honour? On the flipside, do you feel in any way disconnected from LA now?
LA has a special place in our hearts. It’s the city that connected us over ten years ago, and the city that raised us into the creatives we are now. It’s where we’ve found community and the freedom to be our most authentic selves. It’s hard to feel disconnected from a city that is so integral to your upbringing. As much as people like to hate on LA, it will always have a special place in our heart.
Looking to the future, what can we expect from PARTYOF2 now that you’ve done the hard work of re-introducing yourselves? Do you feel a sense of freedom now?
Absolutely. We feel like we’ve created a new planet that we’ve yet to fully explore. It’s exciting to know there’s so much more of us to discover, and that’s really our goal. To continue to reflect who we are and how we see the world through our work. We feel confident, our skills are honed and our team is locked in. There’s no telling how exciting the next chapter will be for us.
Final words on what you’d like the listener to walk away feeling when they experience your new songs in their entirety?
We just want our listeners to know that it’s okay. It’s okay to go through something scary and difficult. It’s okay to not know what’s next, or how you’re going to get there. We discovered a stronger, more resilient version of ourselves through this chapter, and we want people to know that when the going gets tough it’s just best to keep going.
—
—
Release Radar:
Raisa K – Affectionately
Out on Danish label 15 Love, home to ML Buch and CTM, ‘Affectionately’ by London musician Raisa K is a tangled mesh of detuned, deadpan vocals and atonal production calling to mind BEA1991’s and Astrid Sonne fathomless-in-the-mix releases. Much of the album is a riptide of arrhythmic phrasings, loops and glitches, until the Mica Levi and Coby Sey-assisted ‘Stay’ arrives; a warm, burnished lovesong bringing crepuscular rays of light to a largely greyscale reverie.
BODUR – MAQAM
“As hard as I’ve tried over the years, I’ve never been very good at speaking my mother tongue but the musical language of where I am from, the maqam – I was able to understand and speak fluidly.”
London artist BODUR goes full esoteric with her debut album ‘MAQAM’. Conceptualised as a reclamation of her mixed heritage, the tracks on this project incorporate, bend and morph the Oud, an evocative string instrument commonly played in West Asian, North African and Middle Eastern countries. Moving between Sufi-esque devotionals, avant-jazz collages and adrenalised electronics, BODUR weaves fictional and real-life tales rooted in empathy and entropy; excavating what it means to be in a liminal state between cultures – uprooted, dehumanised, displaced.
‘MAQAM’ is out this Friday.
Niall Ashley – Subject Access
On his debut project as Niall Ashley, the Bristol shapeshifter trades the stylistic ambiguity of previous musical alias Llainwire for frenzied screeds that explore the myopia of our musical landscape. On ‘Subject Access’, Ashley flits between interiority and allegory, documenting the journey of a working-class idol coming up against the industry machine. Frayed, raw-nerved strains of rap scrape against spliced vocals, jaunty alt-rock passages and The Neptunes-esque beats, creating a pivot project more infectious than the sum of its parts.
—
Maiya Blaney – Fumbled
“We wanted jungle and punk to have a sweet little wailing baby…”
New York sage Maiya Blaney soundtracks modern dread with this jaunty proto-jungle abrasion. A far cry from the somnolent twilight-RnB of 2021 project ‘3’, Blaney commemorates her signing to Lex Records with a near oppressive soundscape that will have your your teeth chattering.
J. Caesar – No Touching
London’s J. Caesar continues his nostalgia-drenched, street soul excursions with new single ‘No Touching’. This time he’s in a downbeat mood, his low, cajoling spoken word spelling out what happens when an embrace is a dangerous aphrodisiac.
Barney Keen – Figure Out
Nature-dwelling multi-instrumentalist Barney Keen – a frequent collaborator of the likes of James Blake, Ego Ella May, Kae Tempest and Demae, amongst others – paints in gossamer brushstrokes on this folky document of remembrance. Wide-eyed, panoramic and full of heart, Barney Keen’s ten-track debut album ‘Harbinger’ arrives on flourishing London-based imprint Touching Bass this May.
—
Check out the accompanying Astral Realm playlist:
—
Words: Shahzaib Hussain
Join us on WeAre8, as we get under the skin of global cultural happenings. Follow Clash Magazine HERE as we skip merrily between clubs, concerts, interviews and photo shoots. Get backstage sneak-peeks and a view into our world as the fun and games unfold.
