Gene

Description

After a recent nomadic hibernation, LA Priest gives news of himself with the announcement of GENE, his second album due out on April 24, 2020. GENE arrives four years after the iconoclast known under the various names Sam Eastgate, Sam Dust and LA Priest delighted the world with the cosmic pop of his debut album Inji, his first LP for Domino and first solo release following the dismantling of his previous project, Late Of The Pier. GENE also follows the Soft Hair project released in 2016, for which Sam teamed up with Connan Mockasin for a cult album that instantly became a classic. GENE, the album, takes its name from a brand-new analog drum machine that Sam imagined and built on his own. Working alone for more than two years in California, Wales and on the south coast of England, soldering by hand, Sam developed GENE’s inner workings using dozens of electrical circuits he made himself. The creation came after a search for an alternative to the structure and rigor of standard drum machines. Its unique rhythmic patterns are the focal point of the album, tinted with lush pastoral tones, combined with the influence of his changing surroundings. The result of a deep effort of reflection, the record offers a one-way ticket into a dimension entirely Sam’s own. GENE is, to date, the fullest realization of his vision. These songs are in search of meaning, exploring the limits of their creator’s abilities. Opening on the mellow groove of “Beginning,” the album unfolds and sparkles through “Rubber Sky” and “What Moves?” to the melancholic interlude of “Sudden Thing” and the gigantic noise of the centerpiece “Monochrome,” taking a sharp turn in its final third toward a darker, more mystical atmosphere.