Seattle native Mike Hadreas – aka Perfume Genius – brings his four piece band to New Zealand for the first time in February 2015 to delight audiences & perform songs from his profoundly beautiful new album Too Bright, out now on Matador Records.
PERFUME GENIUS
Friday 20th Febraury, 2015
Kings Arms, AUCKLAND
Saturday 21st February 2015,
Bodega, WELLINGTON
Tickets on sale now from www.undertheradar.co.nz /Real Groovy Auckland / Slowboat & RPM Wellington
Over the course of his previous two astonishing albums, Perfume Geniuscemented his place as a singer-songwriter of rare frankness, creating songs that, while achingly emotional, offered empathy and hope, rather than any judgment or handwringing. Sparse, gorgeous and with Hadreas’ quavering vocals often only accompanied by piano, they were uncommonly beautiful tales of a life lived on the dark side – scarred, brutalised, yet ultimately, slowly but surely reclaimed.
The third album from Perfume Genius, Too Bright, builds on the exquisite piano ballads Hadreas has become known for, but is less self-conscious and less concerned with storytelling and easily-digested melodies. It is a brave, bold, unpredictably quixotic exploration of what Hadreas calls “an underlying rage that has slowly been growing since ten and has just begun to bubble up”. Recorded with Adrian Utley of Portishead and featuring John Parish on several tracks, it is a stunning about-face which brings to mind audacious career-shift albums like Kate Bush’s The Dreaming or Scott Walker’s Tilt, records which walk the tightrope between pure songwriting and overt experimentation.
Too Bright is one of 2014’s most acclaimed releases, and the “Best Of 2014” accolades keep pouring in: NPR, Time Magazine, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Stereogum, Paste, Cosmopolitan, American Songwriter, and so many more. It’s an ambitious album, and it’s been extremely gratifying to see how closely people have listened and how intelligently it’s been written about
– and in turn, how popular it’s been with fans.
We cant wait to welcome Perfume Genius
to our universe in February next year
