Destroyer announces new LP ‘LABYRINTHITIS’ out 25th March & shares video for first single ‘Tintoretto, It’s for You’

Destroyer announces new LP 'LABYRINTHITIS' out 25th March & shares video for first single 'Tintoretto, It’s for You' 1
Credit: Nicolas Bragg

Destroyer is pleased to announce LABYRINTHITIS, out 25th March via Bella Union. Alongside this announcement, Destroyer shares the first song and video from the album, “Tintoretto, It’s for You”. 

For the first time, Bejar himself played a big role in creating the visuals for the video (“for better or worse,” he notes). “I had an idea of writing a couple lines on the idea of ‘mystery’ and ‘going nowhere,’ as they are two of my favorite themes. That and the Grim Reaper and being pursued by some silent, unnamable thing that constantly lurks one foot to the left of you. Especially as the world’s decay becomes increasingly less abstract. Also wanted to write on the romance of terror. The song ‘Tintoretto, It’s for You’ speaks to all these things, oddly enough so does the video…”

Video director David Galloway adds: “It hopefully presents some loose giallo vibes despite the fact that it clearly isn’t a giallo at all. Nobody dies, nothing is explored at length, and it’s ultimately a collection of neighbourhood red herrings. All leads that go nowhere. But that’s the mystery. That’s the mystery about music videos.”

Watch the video directed by David Galloway – BELOW:

LABYRINTHITIS is a journey deep into uncharted Dan Bejar country. It brims with mystic and intoxicating terrain, the threads of Bejar’s notes woven through by a trove of allusions at once eerily familiar and intimately perplexing. “Do you remember the mythic beast?” Bejar asks at the outset of “Tintoretto, It’s for You,” casting torchlight over the labyrinth’s corridors. “Tintoretto, it’s for you / The ceiling’s on fire and the contract is binding.”

More than an arcane puzzle for the listener, LABYRINTHITIS warps and winds through the unfamiliar territory for Bejar as well. Written largely in 2020 and recorded the following spring, the album most often finds Bejar and frequent collaborator John Collins seeking the mythic artefacts buried somewhere under the dance floor, from the glitzy spiral of “It Takes a Thief” to the Books-ian collage bliss of the title track. Initial song ideas ventured forth from disco, Art of Noise, and New Order, Bejar and Collins championing the over-the-top madcapper-y.

Bejar and Collins conducted their questing in the height of isolation, Collins on the remote Galiano Island and Bejar in nearby Vancouver, sending ideas back and forth when restrictions didn’t allow them to meet. Ahead of mixing, the Destroyer band was brought into the fold to further the unprepared synchronicity and mutual discovery.

Lyrically, LABYRINTHITIS embraces widescreen maximalism, blocks of text dotted with subversions and hedges. Building from the koans of Have We Met, Bejar continues to carve his words precisely, toying with expectations and staid symbols, while Collins’ production reconstructs the pieces into a unified whole.

In support of LABYRINTHITIS, the Destroyer band heads out on a tour of North America this spring. Bejar recently released a documentary of the previous tour for 2020’s “Have We Met.”

LABYRINTHITIS

LABYRINTHITIS artwork and tracklist:

1. It’s In Your Heart Now

2. Suffer

3. June

4. All My Pretty Dresses

5. Tintoretto, It’s For You

6. Labyrinthitis

7. Eat The Wine, Drink The Bread

8. It Takes A Thief

9. The States

10. The Last Song

Destroyer on tour:

Apr 22 Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theatre
Apr 23 Seattle, WA – The Neptune Theatre

Apr 24 Boise, ID – The Olympic
Apr 26 Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge
Apr 27 Denver, CO – The Bluebird Theater
Apr 28 Omaha, NE – The Waiting Room
Apr 29 St. Louis, MO – Blueberry Hill Duck Room
Apr 30 Nashville, TN – Mercy Lounge
May 02 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle

May 04 Asheville, NC – The Grey Eagle

May 05 Washington, DC – Black Cat

May 06 Philadelphia, PA – Underground Arts

May 07 Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel

May 08 Cambridge, MA – The Sinclair

May 09 Montreal, QC – Theatre Fairmount

May 10 Toronto, ON – Phoenix Concert Theatre

May 11 Detroit, MI – El Club

May 12 Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall

May 13 St. Paul, MN – Amsterdam Bar & Hall

May 14 Lawrence, KS – The Bottleneck

May 15 Oklahoma City, OK – Beer City Music Hall

May 16 Fort Worth, TX – Tulips

May 17 Austin, TX – The Mohawk

May 19 Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom

May 20 Los Angeles, CA – The Belasco

May 21 Berkeley, CA – The UC Theatre

May 22 Portland, OR – Revolution Hall

Xsnoize Author
Mark Millar is the founder of XS Noize and looks after the daily running of the website as well as hosting interviews for the weekly XS Noize Podcast. Mark's favourite album is Achtung Baby by U2.

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