SKINSHAPE – “HIGH TIDE, STORM RISING”
A SPILL EXCLUSIVE VIDEO PREMIERE
This Friday, Will Dorey aka Skinshape announces his seventh solo album, Nostalgia (out October 28 via Lewis Recordings), on which he taps into motives and motifs. To celebrate, he is sharing the record’s second single, “High Tide, Storm Rising,” alongside an accompanying music video.
Speaking on the track, Will wrote:
“This song was written several years ago, it only came together during the writing of the Nostalgia album. The song is simple and the idea is that of a main theme song for a movie. The sweeping string melody and flugal horn were written by my close friend Jon Moody and were the missing piece that really allowed the track to be completed.”
Loosely constructed as an expansion of 2018’s Filoxiny LP, Nostalgia finds Dorey continuing to explore sounds, textures, and filmic set pieces drawing from the works of Quincy Jones and Ennio Morricone, infused with the sights and sounds of his hometown of Swanage in Dorset while adopting a London mindset as per his residence during the recording process. Expanding and retuning the classic Skinshape sound, Nostalgia looks back and moves forward in the same breath as contemporaries Khruangbin, Quantic, Tame Impala, Bonobo, Morcheeba, and Madlib.
Painted with the sort of warm glow that Nostalgia naturally emits/gravitates toward, Dorey continues to excel in blithe spirit and home comforts, impishly inquisitive and bushy-tailed on the opening “Theme for Lazarus,” then attentively absorbing South American colour and culture during “Dreams of Panama.” His is the sort of after hours ambience that you want to stay awake for after a day’s adventuring: the likes of “Albion,” “Bohanon’s Cornucopia” – expanding Skinshape’s virtuosity with his use of oboe, choir and vibraphone – and the concluding “Dawn,” overlap calming lullabies into haunting framings of moments of time that will still catch you should you fall.
Said Dorey, “I spent a while thinking about the title for this album; it was quite hard to pin down the feeling I felt it represented. At a certain point I realised it was nostalgia, for everything; our life passed by, childhood, moments of happiness and sadness, where we grew up.”
Down country lanes via remote paradises and the makings of the mind’s eye, Nostalgia continues. The dub-flecked “Moonlight Walk” will encourage twilight tiptoeing through a ghost town, but whose rich, sweet musicianship provides a safety net from any danger. “High Tide, Storm Rising,” decorated with Dorey’s signature guitar work, defines the album’s optimism that remains quietly guarded and down-to-earth. “Turn Away” charms you into the horizontal, while “Bad Dreams” plucks up the courage to send heads swimming with a psych-funk groove.
“Nostalgia is meant to embody a journey through life, its ups and downs, ebbs and flows” – and who better to help steer you through such sentiment.”
Listen to “High Tide, Storm Rising” via all DSPS tomorrow, and stay tuned for the full LP, out 10/28 via Lewis Recordings.
Skinshape
[Single]
(Lewis Recordings)
Release Date: September 23, 2022