New York, NY (Top40 Charts) "Summer Ghosts" is the latest single to be released from musician-writer-DJ Ben Watt's upcoming fourth solo LP,
Storm Damage, out on January 31, 2020. It follows the recent singles "Figures in the Landscape" (Spotify New
Music Friday UK playlist) and "Balanced on a Wire" described by BlackBook as "...one of the most visceral pieces of music he's ever recorded" and premiered on
Lauren Laverne's BBC 6
Music show.
"Sonically, it set the tone for the album," says Watt of the track. "It was first thing I wrote where I pictured the whole production concept - the piano trio, the trap-influenced drums, the synth drones, the cut-up samples, the dense semi-spoken lyrics."
"I got the title after I met John Grant one night," he continues. "He told me about the Japanese summer tradition of ghosts appearing in August, not - as we often imagine here - in the darkness of winter. I was writing a song about how hard it is to shake your past off, how experiences from years ago can still turn you upside down. The inversion in the title seemed perfect."
"The last verse is then set in Hull where I first met Tracey. I revisited the city in 2017 and was struck by the optimism surrounding its year as City of Culture, but was also moved by the clear scars of economic austerity and my own memories of the place."
In a 9/10 review of
Storm Damage, Uncut says Watt's "solo renaissance continues," describing the record as "the third in his excellent recent run of solo albums" and how "the crepuscular mood, low-simmering anger and abundance of inventive details... evoke Watt's early mentor Robert Wyatt at his most enthralling and adventurous." Watt's late-flowering return to solo songwriting and singing started six years ago after seventeen years in multi-million-selling duo
Everything But The Girl with Tracey Thorn followed by ten years as an acclaimed DJ-remixer-label boss with Buzzin' Fly.
2014's acclaimed "comeback" album, Hendra won Best Second Album at the AIM Awards, UK. It was followed by Fever
Dream in 2106, which caused The Guardian to comment, "In his early fifties Watt is making some of the best music of his career."
Tour Dates:
3/31: Washington, D.C. - Union Stage
4/2: New York, NY - Le Poisson Rouge
4/3: Boston, MA - City Winery
4/4: Hudson, NY - Club Helsinki
4/5: Toronto, ON - Rivoli
4/7: Ann Arbor, MI - The Ark
4/8: Indianapolis, IN - Lo-Fi Lounge
4/9: Evanston, IL - Space
4/10: Milwaukee, WI - The Back Room at Colectivo
4/11: Minneapolis, MN - The Dakota
4/14: Seattle, WA - The Triple Door
4/15: Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios
4/17: San Francisco, CA - The Chapel
4/18: Los Angeles, CA - Largo
Storm Damage Tracklist:
1) Balanced on a Wire
2) Summer Ghosts
3) Retreat to Find
4) Figures in the Landscape
5)
Knife in the Drawer
6) Irene
7) Sunlight Follows the Night
8) Hand
9) You've Changed, I've Changed
10) Festival Song
