At the beginning of the year, SharpTone Record shared a post teasing all acts from their roster with new music in preparation for 2021, including Loathe much to the surprise of fans and critics still hooked on their previous release. Two weeks ago, the band announced the surprise release of The Thins They Believe and confirmed the involvement of saxophonist John Waugh (1975), guitarist Peter Vybiral (Parting Gift), and Vincent Weight in the ambitious upcoming project.

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Публикация, споделена от Loathe (@loatheasone)

As a surprising yet appropriate continuation of the critically acclaimed  I Let It In And It Took Everything and the unusually disruptive year that followed its premiere, The Things They Believe offers a musical retreat from reality. Stripping Loathe’s previous record down to its sonic nucleus, it seemlessly expands its themes and forms a beautiful instrumental soundtrack of the troubled times we live in. The Liverpool quintet shared their latest project with the following message:

“The concept for ‘The Things They Believe’ was born from the incredible response to ‘I Let It In And It Took Everything’, which became the impetus to extend the identity and timeline of the record. Creating sonic landscapes and parallels that explore and expand further on the areas within ‘I Let It In And It Took Everything’. As we release this collection of atmospheres, we hope you lose yourself further within this chapter and, much like our love for soundtracks and soundscapes provides us with solace in times of distress and need, we hope you find comfort inside too.”

‘The Things They Believe’ Featuring John Waugh, Vincent Weight and Peter Vybiral. “Sharing the same air” February 7th. A year to the day. pic.twitter.com/FBxnS4OzhA — Loathe (@loatheasone) January 22, 2021

The Things They Believe consists of 12 individual tracks seemlessly intertwined in one 35-minute long ambient piece evoking silent contemplation and melancholy. The instrumental album is built on ambient sonic scapes mixed with real recordings of gentle rain and chirruping birds, occasionally backed with soulflul saxophone. The record is currenty available only as a digital release across all streaming platforms.

In an exclusive interview for Kerrang! from earlier today, guitarist Erik Bickerstaffe, bassist Feisal El-Khazragi and singer Kadeem France discussed the inspiration and creative process behind their unusual new release and time spent in lockdown:

​“Throughout lockdown, we all experienced what can only be described as extreme personality changes or periods of self-discovery. We’ve all been quite separated from each other, with me down here in Wales, Erik in St Helens, Connor being stranded in Belgium at this point, while only Kadeem and Sean actually live in central Liverpool. We had begun to find the comfort in ambient music, meditation and that kind of stuff. We wanted to create a similar soundscape to live within the universe of Loathe and the world of I Let It In… It’s just another place that you can go.”

Thank you, @KerrangMagazine.

“We had a great deal of pleasure in making it and taking our minds off everything that’s going on in the world. We wanted to pass that on to everyone else as well.”https://t.co/z11wg6LjKp

— Loathe (@loatheasone) February 7, 2021

Turning the tables on the stereotypical radio friendly stuff you hear on a day to day basis, Shigeto takes those backing beats and tinkers with them, turning them into tracks that perk your ears up and demand you take notice.

Kicking things into action roughly a minute in with a gunshot, you kind of get a feel as to where the next three and a half minutes are going to take you. There’s an underground deal (which looks a bit shifty if you ask me), followed by an absolute mind explosion, seemingly taking you on the trip that Shigeto himself has been through. You get taken into his apartment, where he seems to go through some sort of therapy. It’s a bit of a mind fuck, but takes you on a journey through the slightly lesser known parts of Detroit, which is exactly what Shigeto, real name Zachary Shigeto Saginaw, wanted to produce. Speaking about the video, he said:

“We wanted to make a video for ‘Detroit Part 1′ that wasn’t a “Detroit” video if you get me. We didn’t want your run of the mill, driving around in a Ford past the train station, Coney Island, showing all the ruin porn etc. We wanted to convey how ‘Detroit Part 1′ was about my life in Detroit and the experiences I have had in the time I’ve been here. Rafe and I came up with the idea to bring the audience into a very psychedelic dream of mine, loosely representing what had happened in the last year for me.”

It seems to have been a mixed year for Shigeto. He reached the age of 30, played a live show one every two days, moved back from New York to Michigan and came out of a relationship he had been in for six years. But he also released his second LP, No Better Time Than Now, which has fuelled a huge joint headline tour across the States with Beacon, which is sure to increase Shigeto’s ever increasing reputation. It’s only a matter of time until his sounds reach across the pond and start frazzling the minds of Europeans, both on record and on the stage. At least, we all bloody hope it does, as the whole world needs to hear these sounds.

You can check out the video for Detroit Part 1 below, where your whole imagery of Detroit will change. Whether it’s for the good or the bad, we will let you make your mind up about that. No Better Time Than Now is available to buy now. Go do it, before you do absolutely anything else.