OTHERWORLDLY SYNTH-POP SISTERS
THE NEW TAROT
SHARE TRIPPY VIDEO FROM DEBUT ALBUM
THE BOOK OF PROMISES
WATCH "THE SKINNY"
& meet the protagonist from the story the album tells:
"it would fit not uncomfortably besides any number of classic 4AD recordings."
--
The New Tarot headline The Bowery Ballroom on August 4th
More info: https://bit.ly/2Kt3w28
Photo credit: Shervin Lainez
You only get one debut album, and The New Tarot know this, so they're telling fans a story with forthcoming LP, The Book of Promises. The idea for the theme and imagery came to Monika Walker in her sleep, and her sister Karen knew it's what they had to create.
The visuals for the story's first part, when the protagonist is introduced, is aptly called "The Skinny" and informs and foreshadows what's the come. Blackbook describes the album as "a sci-fi rock opera, based on the reincarnation of 16th Century English mathematician, astronomer and occult philosopher John Dee (you can see him advising the Queen - as played by Cate Blanchett - in the 2007 film Elizabeth: The Golden Age). Which, surely, is a welcome break from all the lyrical blubbering about broken hearted sadness as proffered by so many of their contemporaries."
Describing the single, Blackbook says, "Like, say, Bat For Lashes, it aesthetically weds a sort of Anglo-Saxon folk-witchery with zeitgeisty synth-pop stylizing and Wicca ideology. To be sure, it would fit not uncomfortably besides any number of classic 4AD recordings."
Songwriter Monika Walker of The New Tarot on "The Skinny":
Most of this video was shot in the woods by our house in Connecticut. Centuries ago, Native Americans worshipped at the rock here as it is almost completely made of quartz. Later, these woods would get their name from a colonial man who lept off the rock to his death, bringing with him a tribe of righteously maurauding indians. These particular woods have always been a source of peace as muchas a place of uncertainty; and it is this serene chaos that we wished to encapsulate."
"When I heard the album, this track immediately jumped out and grabbed me. As a film director with a strong background in narrative films and great passion for mythology, I was delightfully surprised to learn that the whole album is a retelling of a hero's journey. It was refreshing to work with a band that is inspired by mythology and mysticism because we have that in common. The concept for this video was simply pulled from the point in the New Tarot's adaptation of John D's journey as it unfolds in the album. I love that this video is a self-contained story arch involving magic, curiosity, greed and an inability to resist the call to adventure, and also implies that the story continues. Its an honor to have worked on this piece for the album's debut and was really cool to see it all come together."
More info on the LP's concept from the band:
John Dee receives mystic powers of influence in exchange for spreading the image of the "angel" and uses his sudden celebrity to champion a radical political uprising. He meets a beautiful woman at a rally, who seems the only person not under his spell. They fall in love, he makes her his "queen" but the women discovers the source of his power, and summons the "angel" herself. It reveals it is more alien than angel, that spreading it's sigil will allow it to materialize, and offers to strike a new deal with her; de-materialize to join the alien and explore the universe, and in return the alien won't take over Earth. She is distraught, and feels betrayed; but ultimately accepts. John is suddenly alone, his powers gone, and his name uttered only in scorn. He becomes a hermit and fades out of the public sphere. Earth remains as it is. The album was recorded in Highland Mills, NY near Cornwall, with Andy Baldwin as producer.
Photo credit: Shervin Lainez
--
"The New York-based indie band delivers a new song that's both simple and complex, just like the country that it's about."
Noisey
"The Walker sisters, Monika and Karen, have been twisting the concept of alternative music... as a frenetic sort of rock-synthpop beast. It's a sound that demands its alt label if for no other reason than it's so beyond genre that calling it "other" is really the only recourse."
Consequence of Sound
"The New Tarot is indie rock for witchy babes. Equal parts mystical and danceable, it's fronted by a couple of new-agey sisters (literally sisters, not just spiritually)."
Nylon
"Monika Walker and her band, The New Tarot, are certainly making their way into the public consciousness...But for Walker, the band is more than music: it's a way for her to understand and connect with the various aspects of her own identity."
Psychology Today
"The group's intricate melodies and passionate lyrics give a fresh approach to relationships, mental health, and what it means to be "liked" on Facebook."
Bust
"Shapeshifting between 90s-style alt-rock to indie psych to metal-pop (or something like that, in keeping with the TNT abbreviation of their band name), the sisters keep your ears guessing as to what they're going to do next. There's a fantastical side to their songs and imagery that made for a memorable session..."
Break Thru Radio
--
Stand-alone single "Mistake To Choose" featured on Miss Universe 2017
Debut LP Book of Promises Due Out in October 2018
Check out the first single from new album, "America," which premiered exclusively on Noisey: LISTEN HERE.
Listen to their last EP, God of Science, now streaming on Consequence of Sound HERE.
LINKS :
| Watch The New Tarot's headlining performance of "Ghost" at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC |
0 comments:
Post a Comment