There are collaborations you didnât know you needed and then thereâs the bizarre joy of Crowded House teaming up with Tame Impala for a remix that Neil Finn has described as âan exotic fantasyâ. As the story goes, Finn reached out to Tame Impala, aka Kevin Parker, with hopes the Perth psych-rock juggernaut would put a unique spin on the bandâs current single “To The Island” a proposition that was accepted and resulted in what you hear below:
âWith all the world upended and nothing in its right place we became curious to hear how our favourite contemporary musicians and record makers might reimagine a Crowded House song,â Finn said.Â
âI emailed our version of To The Island to Kevin Parker (Tame Impala) with an invitation to take it apart and reassemble in his own unique way. Happily, he really liked the song and it was an absolute delight to hear what he made from it, an exotic fantasy I would call it.â
Tame Impalaâs remix of To The Island is set to be released on 7â vinyl alongside a previously unreleased remix of the track from Unknown Mortal Orchestra.
How does a psychedelic loner turned lover reckon with timeâs relentless forward march? By plunging backward into an analog dance party where everything glows like a disco ball reflecting off puffy-haired monsters of rock. Kevin Parker built his legend crafting vivid alternate histories of classic rock and big-tent dance music. If 2015âs Currents blurred together the sounds of the modern festival scene, The Slow Rush sounds darker, more interior, more retro â a hallucinogenic swirl bridging the gap between Studio 54 and the Midwest arenas of the same era.
It’s not technically a music video, but a pre-assembled “live” taping for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. Nonetheless, Kevin Parker of Tame Impala’s performance of “Is It True” is as visually striking as any of the outfit’s proper clips, with a split-screened Parker accompanying his vocals on both guitar and bass in three separate, color-coded columns. The ending result is somehow exponentially more captivating than your average remote livestream performance.
An Island Records Australia release Š 2020 Modular Recordings Pty Ltd.
Itâs been awhile, huh? After the Australian psych band led by Kevin Parker dominated the first half of the decade, particularly with its back-to-back classics Lonerism and its poppier sibling Currents, we havenât heard much from Tame Impala since 2015. Sure, theyâve headlined virtually every major music festival and the biggest stages across the world over the past five years, new music has been few and far in between. This is the band that headlined Coachella and played SNL on the heels of releasing two singles and nothing else, after all. Now almost a year since the poppy groove of âBorderlineâ was dropped, weâre finally getting to hear The Slow Rush, a record that sounds like the logical progression from Currentsâ embrace of psychedelic modern R&B and Parkerâs work with Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson and Travis Scott. But donât worry, you Innerspeaker and Lonerism purists: Thereâs lots of psych rock jams to love here underneath the shimmering synth, too.
The Slow Rush was recorded between Los Angeles and Parkerâs studio in his hometown of Fremantle, Australia. The twelve tracks were recorded, produced and mixed by Parker. The Slow Rush is Parkerâs deep dive into the oceans of time, conjuring the feeling of a lifetime in a lightning bolt, of major milestones whizzing by while youâre looking at your phone, itâs a paean to creation and destruction and the unending cycle of life.
The album cover was created in collaboration with photographer Neil Krug and features a symbol of humanity all but swallowed whole by the surrounding environment, as though in the blink of an eye. âItâs been the year of pressure, 2019,â Tame Impalaâs Kevin Parker told Lauren Laverne on 6 Music in November. Most of the pressure stemmed from himself, he admitted; a ticking clock to finish the bandâs fourth album, which lands five years after 2015âs âCurrentsâ.
As is tradition for Parker, he worked in isolation between studio’s Fremantle, Australia and Malibu, California. For the latter, his AirBnb was caught up in last yearâs California wildfires. He fled the flat with his laptop, without realising the extent of the fires.
As for the album title, he says: âit means a lot of things. Above everything, I like the way it makes me feel. Itâs an oxymoron, a paradox. It describes to me how I feel about time.”
Tame Impala is a rare bird in 2020: a relatively new (“new” meaning “roughly decade-old”) rock band that can fill stadiums. The band â which routinely headlines festivals and played SNL last March led by Australian singer and producer Kevin Parker, who’s collaborated with everyone from Travis Scott to Miguel to Lady Gaga to Kanye West. Tame Impala has morphed into something proggier and more experimental as it’s gotten more popular; there’s a searching quality to its songs that’s really connected with worldwide audiences.
Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker was the virtual musical guest last night (May 11th on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in the US.
For his appearance, Parker performed ‘Is It True’, a track from Tame Impala’s album ‘The Slow Rush’, released earlier this year, in a split-screen setup where he played bass, guitar and sang in the three-way visual.
âI have to feel kind of worthless again to want to make music,â Kevin Parker said of the long gestation time between the forthcoming Tame Impala album “The Slow Rush” and 2015âs world-beating “Currents”. While the dreamy introspection of Parkerâs past music treats the passing of time as a man-made construct, recent Tame Impala output suggests he has been thinking a lot about the subject of late. Patience, the first of his three 2019 singles, extolled the virtues of waiting around, but It Might Be Time flips the script, seeing him obsess over friends growing up and moving on, realising he isnât as young as he once was. âNothing lasts forever,â he sighs as if just realising this truth, while a prominent synth swings from side to side like a pendulum â or is it ringing out like an emergency siren? Either way, thereâs an urgency to this track that weâve yet to hear from Tame Impala, and weâve got all the time in the world for it.
Band Members
Kevin Parker – Guitar / Bass / Drums / Sing
Jay Watson – Keys
Dominic Simper – Guitar / synth
Cam Avery – Bass
Julien Barbagallo – Drums
An Island Records Australia release Š 2019 Modular Recordings Pty Ltd. Tame Impalaâs new album The Slow Rush will be out 14th February 2020.
Tame Impala almost single-handedly brought about a psych revolution as soon as their track âElephantâ dominated the airwaves in 2012. It wasnât long before just about every other guitar band started experimenting with effect pedals and tried to mimic the production genius that is the bandleader Kevin Parker.
Many people have put Tame Impalaâs unique sound down to the fact that their hometown of Perth is the most isolated major city in the world. But the band grew out of the vibrant Perth scene that also produced other notable Australian bands like Pond and GUM.
“The Slow Rush” was recorded between Los Angeles and Parkerâs studio in his hometown of Fremantle, Australia. The long-awaited 4th full-length album from Tame Impala
The twelve tracks were recorded, produced and mixed by Parker. “The Slow Rush” is Parkerâs deep dive into the oceans of time, conjuring the feeling of a lifetime in a lightning bolt, of major milestones whizzing by while youâre looking at your phone, itâs a paean to creation and destruction and the unending cycle of life. Parker told the New York Times earlier this year, âa lot of the songs carry this idea of time passing, of seeing your life flash before your eyes, being able to see clearly your life from this point onwards. iâm being swept by this notion of time passing. thereâs something really intoxicating about it.â the album cover was created in collaboration with photographer Neil Krug and features a symbol of humanity all but swallowed whole by the surrounding environment, as though in the blink of an eye. in the last six months Tame Impala have headlined multiple major festivals including Glastonbury, Coachella, Primavera, Lollapalooza, Acl and more. he debuted two new songs on Saturday Night Live and sold out arenas around the world including two nights at New York Cityâs Madison Square Garden.
âA lot of the songs carry this idea of time passing, of seeing your life flash before your eyes, being able to see clearly your life from this point onwards. Iâm being swept by this notion of time passing. Thereâs something really intoxicating about it.â – Kevin Parker
Fans have been patiently waiting and now they’ve been rewarded – Tame Impala have finally dropped a new track!
The track, dubbed Patience, is the first new music from Perth’s Kevin Parker (who works under the Tame Impala moniker) since the 2015 Grammy-nominated album, Currents. It’s described as a “mid-tempo chugger of ’70s disco and ’90s house, stoned on the house-made Tame Impala lysergic liquor”.
âPatience’ is a mid tempo chugger of 70s disco and 90s house, stoned on the house-made Tame Impala lysergic liquor. A jubilant, confident cut of elegant piano jabs, driving disco drums and Parkerâs inimitable vocal style, the track is a lyrical meditation on lifeâs cycles and phases that ascends to an overwhelmingly blissed out zenith, as our protagonist makes peace with the transience of time. Itâs a potent hint at the infinite possibilities for future Tame Impala.
Tame Impala are headlining Coachella next month, and have recently been announced on both the Glastonbury and Lollapalooza line-ups.
Another one of Perthâs heroes. ÂŁGiant Tortoise” is mega, thereâs nothing like it really. Pond changed the game for me with Hobo Magic. Going back to Sabbath roots, heavy prog, â70s metal origins to add their unique flavour of psych to the modern era.
A Perthadelic mind-splurge, thatâs what. To simplify matters, letâs start with just two: Kevin Parker and NickAllbrook, Tame Impalaâs singer and ex-bassist respectively, and the two biggest heads in the burgeoning Perth psych scene. Whenever Parker was locked away to single-handedly pull Tameâs albums out of Godâs nostril, Allbrook was busy with his own astral pop projections.
Jamming randomly with other at-loose-ends Tame members (and occasionally Kevin too, on drums), he built a sprawling collective around Pond, the improvisational art-rock collaboration that was formed on the day of their first house-party gig in 2008, and knocked up their 2009 debut album âPsychedelic Mangoâ on an eight-track in Nickâs parentsâ granny flat. After three more albums (see box, right), and with all the sounds in his head colliding with the fucked-Floyd freak-outs of âLonerismâ on tour, Nick left Tame Impala in May to concentrate on Pond, among other projects. Bizarrely, he was replaced in Tame by Pond drummer Cam Avery, who clearly never got the âLeaving Tame Impala To Concentrate On Pondâ memo.
To quit the coolest band in the world to go make a seven-track album of surreal psychedelic blues about spiritualism, giant tortoises, conspiracy theorists and Pegasus. But thatâs what Allbrook has done, and with considerable success. Pondâs fifth album, âHobo Rocketâ, bristles with unrestrained creativity and sonic exploration, while verging away from pastoral prog towards a harder garage blues slant. Spiritualist acid mania infects âHobo Rocketâ from its first mystical inklings: opener âWhatever Happened To The Million Head Collide?â wafts in on a cloud of MGMT and a distorted Buddy Holly bass riff, Nick emitting psychedelic yowls between references to âthe holiest of holiesââ and how âI am, you are Buddha, Krishna, Godââ. Then he screams, and the track becomes a White Stripes/Band Of Skulls voodoo rocker, Nick shifting from meditative peacenik to paranoid conspiracy freak: âIâm gonna sleep for a week and not speak at all/Cover myself in oil and tin foilââ. Itâs a schizophrenic mash-up, but one hell of a sucker-punch opening.
Heavy as a narwhalâs balls and concerning the crippling emotional effects of psychoactive medication, the brittle blues bluster of âXanmanâ provides pop relief in the style of a wormhole âSeven Nation Armyâ, Nick playing the lusty funk squealer with commitment during the blow-out coda. âO Dharmaâ â by turns The Beatlesâ âSun Kingâ, Pink Floydâs âAny Colour You Likeâ and Hot Chip getting groovy round the Maharajaâs gaff â is perhaps the sweetest acoustic gospel-hippy swirl ever to centre around the phrase âAnd if you muthafuckers donât like it you can all get outââ. Itâs a key phrase to Pondâs ethos; reflecting their experimental roots â and perhaps Nickâs wild musical mood swings â this is an album of dichotomies, both thematic and sonic. Lulled into a pleasant dopamine haze by âO Dharmaâ? Now take the ponderous, misanthropic Zep-metal chunder of âAloneaflamaflowerâ, segueing into âGiant Tortoiseâ â a tune that imagines Jack White going back in time to guest on âAcross The Universeâ.
Pondâs open-mindedness lifts off towards event status on the title track, in which a guy called Cowboy John â a local legend described in the sleevenotes as âartist, mystic, wanderer, eccentricââ â rants and mumbles about flying through the universe at âtwice the speed of lightââ on a âhorse with wingsââ like a dope-fried Lou Reed, then starts asking the band mid-song what drugs theyâve got. It all wraps up with the demonic blues metal of âMidnight Mass (At The Market St Payphone)â, complete with a pastoral, Floyd-y, four-minute âDear Prudenceâ outro to a record that leaves you mentally a-quiver. When a million heads collide, it seems, itâs a colourstorm.
Kevin Parker’s Tame Impala has joined American house artist Zhu on his latest single. Parker continues to show his versatility and his penchant for pop music. Earlier he collaborated with retro party-starter Mark Ronson and R&B new-wavers SZA and DRAM. Neu-psych festival darlings Tame Impala team up with Chinese American house producer ZHU on a one-off collaboration.
This sounds like 4PM on a 90° summer afternoon. You and the crew have spent the day stumbling from stage to stage at your music festival of choice. Youâre slightly intoxicated, but not so much that youâve lost track of where you are. The opening synth sounds of âMy Lifeâ waft through nearby speakers â soft appredigios that lead into KevinParkerâs hazy falsetto, which are soon underlined by rolling bass drums. The edible you just kicked in. Everything is perfect. Youâll live forever.
The Tame Impala ,”Currents Collectors Edition” box set includes the album on limited edition red marbled vinyl with alternate artwork, a 12â featuring two remixes, and a 7â and flexidisc with three b-sides. Plus a poster and a zine of images and scribbles offering a candid glimpse into the making of “Currents”.
Now, just over two years since it was released, Tame Impalaâs modern classic is getting the deluxe treatment, with a collectorâs edition of the record set to be released next month.
Tame Impala first hinted at the emergence of this release way back in July of last year, but now weâre seeing something a lot more concrete. Announcing the news via social media and YouTube earlier , Tame Impala shared a video of Kevin Parker in the studio back in 2014, crafting one of the unheard songs that is set to appear on the new version of the record. With a release date set for November 17th, the Currents collectorâs edition is set to include a gigantic array of fan-pleasing goodies, including the entire album on red marbled vinyl, with alternate artwork. Also included is a 12âł record with two remixes, a 7âł and a flexidisc record containing three B-sides, including a poster and zine, which contains a whole bunch of handwritten notes made by Kevin Parker during the recording session for the album.
While we wait for the collectorâs edition of Currents to drop next month, check out Soulwaxâs remix of âLet It Happenâ, which weâre hoping will be included in the new edition.
If youâre keen on grabbing yourself a copy of the new edition of the record, head over to Tame Impalaâs online store to pre-order yours. While thereâs been no official announcement about it yet, some folks over on the TameImpala subreddit on Reddit have discovered that the box set seems to be limited to 2,500 copies, so you might want to get in quick.
Of course, this isnât the first time that Tame Impala have released an expanded version of their records. Back in 2011, they released a new edition of their debut record “Innerspeaker”, which featured an extra disc titled Extraspeaker that included a bunch of rarities and remixes.
