Anglo-American duo Baba Ali return with the announcement of their second album Laugh Like A Bomb, set for release on Friday 21st April via Memphis Industries.
With the news, the pair have shared lead single ‘Burn Me Out’, a documentation of their creative ethos and the societal urge to overindulge to the point of exhaustion.
“I think a lot of the process of writing this album came from pushing ourselves to our limits to get to the essential idea, and discarding anything that felt superfluous or unnecessary.” explain the duo. “There was a lot of writing, re-writing, deleting, re-recording and then just repeating that process again. A lot of times the best idea would come out of that final push when you’re too exhausted to even think and you rely on feeling.”
Returning following the release of their debut ‘Memory Device’ in 2020 and 18 months of touring across Europe and the US, Baba Ali have created an incendiary follow up with one foot firmly placed on the dance floor, the other in a state of constant frenzy. Laugh Like A Bomb showcases anxious synths and scratchy guitars that collide with concrete drum hits, pulsing bass and Baba’s snarly vocals in a 40 minute collection that explores feelings of unease, abandon and desire as well explorations into the more sinister.
Having previously collaborated with Al Doyle (LCD Soundsystem/Hot Chip) on their debut album, this time the duo absconded to Doyle’s studio in his own touring absence and took to production duties themselves. Laugh Like A Bomb was recorded in just three weeks before being mixed by Sheffield producer Ross Orton (Working Men’s Club / Arctic Monkeys / Yard Act).
The record’s title is a phrase borrowed from a passage of the early 20th Century radical art manifesto BLAST! that Baba had encountered by chance on one sleepless night on tour. “The moment I saw the phrase ‘Laugh Like A Bomb’, I was immediately struck by how accurate it described what I was feeling at a time when we were touring hard and constantly working to earn just enough to get by.”
“Personally I was going through a lot of feelings of uncertainty, and living in a foreign country intensified this sense of vulnerability. Despite this, there always felt a need to keep some sort of appearance of normality. Over time, though, there were moments where eventually the surface would crack and I’d lose control of myself or feel a need to escape by dipping more into a hedonistic existence. This record became a way for me to work through and document these emotions and triggering experiences, almost like therapy.”
Laugh Like A Bomb - Track Listing:
01. Hold My Head
02. Burn Me Out
03. Gold Rush!
04. I’m Bored
05. Anaesthesia, Beverly Hill
06. Laugh Like A Bomb
07. Make U Feel
08. A Circle
09. Lip Service
10. Bankrupt Funk
11. Yves Klein Blue
