Drew Daniel of Matmos has returned to his solo The Soft Pink Truth project for a new album, titled Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase?
The album, his first under the moniker since 2015’s self-released Why Pay More?, sees Daniel return to Thrill Jockey who released 2014 album Why Do The Heathen Rage? Below, you can hear lead track ‘We’.
The album, a press release explains, occupies a headspace somewhere between "deep dance music and classical minimalism," with ‘We’ forming an excerpt of an album that’s presented as one long, continuous piece.
"The election of Donald Trump made me feel very angry and sad, but I didn’t want to make ‘angry white guy’ music in a purely reactive mode," Daniel says of the impetus behind the record. "I felt that I needed to make music through a different process, and to a different emotional outcome, to get past a private feeling of powerlessness by making musical connections with friends and people I admire, to make something that felt socially extended and affirming."
The album was produced with the help of a number of figures including Colin Self and Horse Lords’ Andrew Bernstein, as well as Daniel’s partner and fellow Matmos member. Different collaborators were invited to add improvised responses to Daniel’s initial musical sketches.
Thrill Jockey will release Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase? on May 1. It follows on from Matmos’ 2019 album, Plastic Anniversary, which, Thrill Jockey says, the duo are currently working on a follow-up to.
Read tQ’s 2019 interview with Drew Daniel, in which he reflects on a quarter century of Matmos, here.
