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Billy Nomates, the project of the Bristol-based songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Tor Maries, announces the release of her much anticipated second studio album, CACTI, on 13 January 2023 via Invada Records.

Recorded at her flat and Invada Studios, CACTI is a huge step up for the artist, who received widespread critical acclaim for her eponymous 2020 debut album, with heavy airplay across BBC Radio 6 Music and support from luminaries such as Iggy Pop, Florence Welsh and Steve Albini.

Though every bit as unrepentant as Billy Nomates’ debut, CACTI comes from a much more exposed place and sees Tor further develop her instinctive, inventive songwriting and production. Unafraid to wade into the traumas of the past two years and the eerie sense of apathy that lingers, alongside heartache and more political themes, the 12-track collection openly confronts uncomfortable truths; as Tor puts it, “70-80% of being bold is about being vulnerable as hell.”

Maries said: “Writing CACTI took just over a year. I wrote very intensely and then none at all. (This seems to be the way I work best). I picked up old drum machines, mapped out things in my kitchen with the same small micro keyboard I always use and then raided the cupboards and rooms at Invada Studios, to play and experiment with old synths, an upright piano, this weird organ thing. I hope everyone finds their own narrative in CACTI. I think it’s about surviving it all.”

Today Billy Nomates shares a new single, “balance is gone”, which tackles those struggles head-on, charting her attempts to find purpose. About the song, Tor says: “It’s a lot to ask, balance. Does anybody feel on kilter? Has anybody achieved all that harmony? I don’t think it’s a unique chase. And some days, it’s good to acknowledge it got up and left the room.”

Watch the video for “balance is gone” – BELOW:

“balance is gone” is the second track to be heard from CACTI, following the BBC Radio 6 Music A-Listed “blue bones”, a gentle, 80s-influenced, synth-pop bop which was a celebration of life, featuring the refrain, “Death don’t turn me on like it used to.”

Billy Nomates will be touring the UK in support of “balance is gone” as follows, with further dates to be announced. Tickets are available here.

Nov 22 – London – Village Underground

Nov 23 – Oxford – The Bullingdon

Nov 24 – Cambridge – MASH

Nov 26 – Norwich – Norwich Arts Centre

Nov 27 – Sheffield – Leadmill

Nov 28 – Stoke-on-Trent – Sugarmill

Nov 29 – Liverpool – Arts Club

Dec 1 – Bristol – Trinity

Dec 3 – Falmouth – Cornish Bank

CACTI tracklist:

balance is gone

black curtains in the bag

blue bones (deathwish)

CACTI

saboteur forcefield

roundabout sadness

spite

fawner

same gun

vertigo

apathy is wild

blackout signal