SHLOHMO - THE END VINYL RE-ISSUE (LTD. ED. PINK 2LP GATEFOLD)

LIMITED EDITION PINK 2LP VINYL GATEFOLD RE-ISSUE

Release Date: 4th March 2022

"Three years after its initial release, Friends of Friends present Shlohmo's seminal third studio album 'The End' on pink vinyl for the first time - an album that brought Shlohmo on a billboard on Times Square and saw him in BBC's Essential Mix seat. “The album is vaguely about the end of the world, but from the viewpoint of smoking on the couch during the extinction event. Reading a nice book while the meteor hits. The fake peace of insularity during chaos,” says Henry Laufer on his new record. ‘The End’ is a thunderous apocalyptic masterpiece that sees the LA producer delve deep into his vast skillset. Drawing inspiration from his interest in cults who view the end of days as an occasion to relish, ‘The End’ is the sound of impending doom bringing calmness in its futility. It’s a beast of a record from an artist at the top of his game and boasting a list of recent collaborators including Post Malone, Corbin, Joji, Chance The Rapper, Yung Lean, Lil Yachty, Banks & Jeremih. Album opener and first single ‘Rock Music’ acted as a palette of discovery for where Laufer wanted the album to exist in. The drums were done with toy drum machines and a Mini-Korg Monotron delay, which he ended up using throughout album as well as the synth sounds from Teenage Engineering's Pocket Operators. “Like a beautiful anxious wreck, it’s a huge fucking mess and one of my favourite messes I’ve made,” he muses. Utilising a lot of the same instruments and process as ‘Rock Music,’ the title track is from the same world of “crumbling, warping shit,” as he calls it, and ‘Hopeless’ is an ode to goth and new wave. ‘Headache of the Year’ and ‘Ungrateful’ are a tale of two halves, the former a nod to the doom metal and hardcore he grew up on, and the latter a continuation made within the same session. All the vocals on ‘Best of Me’ are sample of himself. “This one feels like visiting my old brain form 2012 and reminiscent of my music form that time with new sensibilities,” he says. Recorded on cassette, played on his Dad’s upright piano and then chopped up the chords on his computer, he describes ‘We Sat in The Car’ as his secret favourite. “The very end of the song I think are my favourite 30 seconds on the whole record.” ‘Watching A Video’ feels like scrolling through a Youtube blackhole with your significant other under a warm blanket, while missiles pass overhead and ‘Be Myself’ is doing ecstasy alone in the dark. The sister song to an old one called ‘Empty Pools,’ ethereal closing track ‘Still Life’ was recorded in one take through a delay/loop pedal was written at a time when Laufer was recording a lot of guitar for the film score he was working on. It’s a lush and fitting end to a mammoth return from Laufer, who throughout ‘The End’ manages to conjure a sense of hope amidst impending fatalness."