Reb Fountain Announces New Album 'IRIS' + Shares Single / Video 'Beastie'

Reb Fountain asks us to sit with our deep-seated flaws and monstrous truths in new song 'Beastie', the second single from her just announced forthcoming album IRIS. The first was ripper love song 'Heart', which has already racked up thousands of streams after dropping late last month, and the new release swaps out plucky, ethereal synth for straight up sexy bass and guitar from bandmates Dave Khan and Karin Canzek. Khan, Canzek and drummer Earl Robertson feature in the super stylish Lola Fountain-Best directed video, made with support from NZ On Air, in teddy bear camouflage, as Fountain's own reflection, and as bearer of balloon animals, respectively. The 2021 Taite Music Prize winner herself dances through the multi-level set with a Christopher Walken-sized swagger, at times moving in a Frankenstein's monster fashion, in keeping with the song's beastly themes. As is the case with the entirely of IRIS, 'Beastie' was written during lockdown when she committed to crafting at least a song a day and is in part her response to the 'Is that us' rhetoric that followed the Christchurch terrorist attack. Fountain explains here...

“Botham Jean had just been murdered in his own apartment, mass incarceration and systemic racism in the criminal justice system had me grief-stricken, the massacre of worshippers in Christchurch broke my heart, the All Blacks would win, the All Blacks would lose and male violence against women would hit an all time high — and amidst all this I heard this phrase ‘Is That Us’. It was less a question, more reaching for belonging; would we buy that? Can we call it ours? Do we like it? Is this who we want to be? Can we collectively agree this is us? I wanted to consider it all …

It’s easy to relegate evils to the ‘shameful past’; harder to confront our own current inhumanity, especially if one’s identity comes with benefits or losses."

Watch and listen to 'Beastie', and take a moment to reflect...

Reb Fountain's album 'IRIS' is out on Friday 1st October via Flying Nun Records.