New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Grammy-award winning artist and producer Mura Masa today shares his long-awaited third studio album demon time via Polydor Records/Universal Music. The project includes thrilling first single "bbycakes" (ft. Lil Uzi Vert,
PinkPantheress and Shygirl) as well as this summer's viral hit, "blessing me" (20M+ streams) and his most recent UKG-inspired track featuring
Erika de Casier that dropped earlier this week alongside a futuristic video. Mura Masa will be embarking on a string of in-store shows in celebration of the record, kicking off with a launch party at Venue MOT in Bermondsey with performances from Angelita, Cosha,
James Massiah and Kemarr, full details can be found below.
Beneath its hyperreal surface, demon time signals a deeper period of reflection and reinvention for Mura Masa. He started work on the project shortly after his European tour in support of second album R.Y.C was curtailed by lockdown. Whilst that record's world of imagined memories, raw emotional exploration and nostalgia-as-a-crutch might seem timely, Mura Masa went in the opposite direction: connecting the dots between his genre-shaping, Soundcloud origin story, and electronic music as it exploded on platforms like TikTok to create songs that might soundtrack life ahead. For a while, demon time had the working title of Fun, with Alex predicting people would need "vicarious, escapist music now. So that's where this demon time idea came from - how do we soundtrack the 1am to 5am period where you start doing stupid shit that you don't regret but wouldn't do again when it emerges again post-lockdown?"
From its whispered introduction - "it's demon time" - to its messy finish, demon time is a journey into the unknowns of the night, and the "e-motions" you might encounter along the way. There is a sense throughout of taking guests (and genres) into unfamiliar places, and Mura Masa blurring the boundaries of the artist/producer dynamic into something more curatorial. From its Y2K aesthetic to its who's-who guest-list, demon time ultimately explores ideas like what the future could have been, how a lost generation might find themselves again, and the freedom found by embracing chaos.
Nominated for his second Ivor Award recently for producing PinkPantheress' hit "
Just For Me", Mura Masa has always resisted simple categorization. He has been featured on Forbes' illustrious 30 Under 30 list and is a platinum-selling, Grammy-Award-winning (and 4x nominated) artist, who has surpassed 2 billion streams and headlined shows like
Alexandra Palace and Warehouse Project. From his quiet upbringing in Guernsey to some of the world's biggest artists jumping on tracks across his catalogue, Mura Masa has always looked towards where things should be heading. A young artist determined to make a difference - Alex also launched his 3T training scheme in 2020, designed to provide training and opportunity for underrepresented groups in the touring and live sector - his goal on demon time remains a constant in an always-unpredictable career: to capture 'that' moment in pop culture, to make it Mura Masa's own, and to move things forward.
Having teased demon time across a range of summer festivals worldwide - from Primavera and Glastonbury to All Points East - Mura Masa has also confirmed details of intimate launch events surrounding the release of his new record. He will throw an album launch party at Venue MOT on
September 16th, with a run of out-store dates including a Village Underground date in partnership with Rough Trade confirmed for
September 26th.
16.09.22 || London || demon time album launch party @ Venue MOT
17.09.22 || Kingston || Banquet Records @ Pryzm
18.09.22 || Southampton || Vanilo Records @ The Brook
19.09.22 || Liverpool || Jacaranda Records @ Hangar 34
20.09.22 || Leeds ||
Crash Records @ Wardrobe
26.09.22 || London || Rough Trade @ Village Underground
Early praise for demon time:
"a future-facing, post-pandemic mash-up" - NME, 4*
"he captures a sense of being unstoppable - perhaps because he is himself." - DIY, 4*
"reliably brilliant...a thrilling future pop experience" - Top40-Charts.com
"a head-spinning fun fest...frenetic, DIY and warts and all" - The Face
"a discography framed by versatility and innovation." - The Clash.
