NEWS
EVENTS
'Put Your Back N 2 It' All new album by Perfume Genius
Monday 26th November 2012 | Ellen
With the evolution and rebirth of genres such as hip hop and reggae in recent times, there has also been the undetected gradual uprising of something all-together more melancholy happening in the youth music scene… and it’s starting to take over.
First it was Damien Rice who crept onto festival stages in the noughties, and then Bon Iver locked himself away in a cabin for a year and produced the much acclaimed ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ - which won over all who already worshiped the sombre, as well as bringing a whole new audience to this shady subgenre.
And who will quench our thirst for more? Seattle-based Mike Hadreas, that’s who. Releasing his first album ‘Learning’ in 2010 under his MySpace pseudonym Perfume Genius with European label Turnstile Records he toured the Western world under the radar. Then in February this year he returned with fresh material from his brand new album ‘Put your back N 2 It’ and started getting picked up by huge indie festivals Latitude and End of the Road - the former being owned by Festival Republic, the biggest name in UK festivals today.
The reason for the albums success is largely due to its gutsy, ground breaking promo video ‘Hood’ which features infamous pornstar Arpad Miklos, the content of which lead to it being rated Over 18 by YouTube. It is currently Hadreas’ most popular song on Spotify and has amounted over 700, 000 views on YouTube for the official video alone. The video challenges gay stereotypes as well as exploring the fragility of the artist and setting a new standard for minimalist indie.
The rest of the album features intensely personal accounts of Hadreas’ life; as an addict, a son, a gay man and an artist. Each song – largely dominated by the frontman’s simplistic use of piano chords and his partner’s synth riffs – is so raw that it completely exposes the artist in a way that is uncommon in modern music. Many of the pieces also defy the wishes of the modern music industry in their strikingly sudden conclusions. Normal Song, another favourite on YouTube and Spotify, is equally as passionate and soulful as Hood; it dares to be both explicit in lyric and subtle in form, a theme becoming more and more apparent in the music of this rising star. As well as being a success among audiences, he’s also adorned the front cover of magazines such as Notion and been interviewed by GT.
Indie has been dragged into the mainstream kicking and screaming, and the music has suffered blandness as a result… Perfume Genius is here to claim it back.
by Ellen Kenyon Peers
ehkuhpuddle@hotmail.co.uk
@scatartist
