Atmosphere, the iconic hip-hop duo consisting of Slug and Ant, have announced their upcoming album Jestures, set for release on September 19th via Rhymesayers Entertainment. Today, they’ve shared two new singles, “Yearning,” featuring Yoni Wolf of WHY?, and “Daley.” The single, “Yearning”, is accompanied by a new music video directed by Evidence, showcasing Slug amid the urban backdrop of Minneapolis, MN and leans into a crackling, soulful dimension of the duo’s sound. On the track, Slug shares stories involving themes of social experiences and personal identity, grappling with the addictive nature of the human need for external validation.
Alongside the album announcement, Atmosphere released singles and accompanying videos for “Really” and “Velour.” The video for “Really,” directed by Melby, features Slug performing a series of daredevil stunts, landing somewhere between John Wick, The Rehearsal, and Jackass. Meanwhile, the “Velour” video, shot and edited by ZooDeVille, combines dreamlike melodies with lighthearted lyrics to embody euphoric love in an everyday setting.
Atmosphere – Jestures
A little less than a quarter of the way through Jestures, Atmosphere’s sprawling, acrobatic new album, Slug cuts right to the beating heart of this phase in the legendary duo’s catalog: “Still get nightmares when you’re living your dreams,” he raps. The cliches about creativity say that it comes from chaos—the rock star archetypes forged in the 1970s conjure images of coke spoons and trashed hotel rooms, and more recent thinking makes it inextricable from major trauma. Jestures, which is already Atmosphere’s fifth release of the 2020s, challenges that notion. This remarkably productive period has seen Slug burrow into every crevice of middle-aged stability and domestic life for its unexpected points of friction. With Jestures, this exploration has yielded its most fascinating results to date.
The first thing you notice about Jestures is its shape. Not only does it feature an eye-popping 26 songs, but those songs are arranged alphabetically by their titles: “Asshole” into “Baby” into “Caddy,” and so on. Even the lineup of guests conforms to this, with Evidence on “Effortless,” Kurious on “Kilowatts,” and a trio of heavy hitters—Musab, Muja Messiah, and Mike the Martyr—on “Mash,” among others. Both the sequencing of tracks and their sheer number are bits of misdirection. Many songs on Jestures last just long enough to fully articulate their core ideas; the crop of 26 is arranged in such a way so as to be musically intuitive and a comprehensive survey of one man’s life as he pauses to take stock.
Jestures is an album not about being stuck, but about the relentless forward progress of time. “Don’t mistake my circle as the shape of repetition,” Slug raps on opener “Asshole,” underlining how central this pursuit has become. This manifests in the mundane—those rent or mortgage payments come no matter what’s happened in the 30 days since; the fridge needs to stay full—and when it comes to life’s bigger, more abstract anxieties. If, as he raps on “Daley,” Slug wants “to skip ahead to read the end of the story,” he’s out of luck.
What exists in place of that certainty that will never come is the joy of discovery. Little things you never noticed about your partner, tics your kids pick up when you aren’t looking. All of this is laid over a lush, varied set of beats from the illustrious Ant, ranging from the controlled electro-chaos of “Furthermore” to the heavy droning of “Past,” the playful drum cascade of “XXX” to the cowboy-outlaw twang of “Locusts.” Early on the title track, Slug quips that while he has both an angel and a devil on his shoulders, “all they really want is exposure.” It’s funny, but it’s also the core ethos of Jestures. On a long enough timeline, all the overdue credit card bills or lovers’ quarrels simply become the things that shape you in the present—and point you, better prepared, toward the future.
Yearning and Daley are out now – https://rse.lnk.to/Jestures
Jestures is out Friday 19th September – https://rse.lnk.to/Jestures
For more information on Atmosphere:
https://www.facebook.com/Atmosphere
https://www.instagram.com/Atmosphere/
https://www.tiktok.com/@atmospheresucks
https://www.bandsintown.com/a/282-atmosphere
Jestures Tracklist:
For three decades now, Atmosphere has maintained a course of rigorous output, releasing over two dozen studio albums, EP’s and collaborative side projects in as many years. In that time, the venerated duo have built a legacy out of bringing honesty, humility and vulnerability to the forefront of their music, continually challenging themselves to evolve without straying too far from their roots. Slug has proven masterful at storytelling and writing compelling narratives, leaving a trail of his own influence while paying homage to the rappers and songwriters that helped shape him. Ant has skillfully molded the soundtracks with inspiration from soul, funk, rock, reggae, and the wizardry of hip-hop’s pioneering DJ’s and producers, creating his own trademark sounds while providing the pulse for songs about life, love, stress and setbacks. At its essence, Atmosphere has been a musical shepherd, and with each new album comes a new journey as they guide generations of listeners through this thing called life.
Toronto-based artist Aashika Reddy is making her mark with the release of her debut EP…
Live electronic duo Double Touch have graced All Day I Dream with their newest four-track…
British DJ duo Audiojack are back with a brand new single ‘Rumours’ out now as…
maq 22’s MUNINN stands as a masterclass in sonic architecture, sculpting noise, rhythm, and voice…
Chicago-based Producer and DJ BARKER joins Tiger Records for his new release, ‘Set Me Free,’…
Production duo Jaeza return with another jazz-tinged release: dropping ‘if you don’t eat’ as the…
