THE THE, releases their new single ‘Linoleum Smooth To The Stockinged Foot’ from their upcoming album Ensoulment through earMUSIC.
THE THE has today digitally released ‘Linoleum Smooth To The Stockinged Foot’ and the accompanying music video, the second single from Ensoulment, their long-awaited new studio album, out on Cinéola / earMUSIC on Friday, 6th September 2024.The song is co-produced by Matt Johnson and Warne Livesey. This 2nd single is available as a limited 7” vinyl on Friday 2nd August.
Listen to ‘Linoleum Smooth To The Stockinged Foot’ HERE
The lyrics for this song – which touch upon the nascent bio-security state – were written from Matt Johnson’s hospital bed, under the influence of morphine whilst recovering from a life-saving operation. As fate would have it,
Johnson’s weeks in hospital had nothing to do with Covid, but occurred at precisely the time Covid reached crisis proportions, making for an even more surreal ordeal.
The discordant interplay between horns and fiddle is redolent of Johnson’s hallucinogenic, surreal experience, which he tried to emulate by asking the musicians to improvise over the track, without hearing the other’s contribution, as he manipulated the sounds in real time.
‘Linoleum Smooth To The Stockinged Foot’ is unique in that it does not featureany of the core band members apart from Johnson on vocals, guitar and bass, plus guest musicians Sonya Cullingford on fiddle, Terry Edwards on horns, Gillian Glover providing backing vocals, and hand claps from percussionist Danny Cummings.
The new music video for ‘Linoleum Smooth To The Stockinged Foot’ was made in conjunction with long-time collaborators: directed by Tim Pope with editingand VFX by Vicki Bennett (People Like Us) and Peter Knight. Anya Krasnikova as the Director of Photography.
Watch the music video HERE
Pre-order Ensoulment HERE
About THE THE:
THE THE was formed by Matt Johnson in 1979 and the music inhabits a genre of its own: music of long shadows, high hopes, channelled anger, feverish passions and sweetly disturbing poignancy. It is pop and rock, blues and folk, soul and polemic. It spans alienated electronics to twisted cinematic soundtracks, guitar tumbling swing to crimson ballads, rants and prayers to diaries and hymns.
In over four decades, THE THE have released just five studio albums of original songs – ‘Soul Mining’ (1983), ‘Infected’ (1986), ‘Mind Bomb’ (1989), ‘Dusk’ (1993) and ‘NakedSelf’ (2000). But always unpredictable, during this time THE THE have also made diversions into cover albums, such as Hanky Panky; film soundtracks including Hyena, Tony, Muscle and Moonbug; art installations; a podcast series, Radio Cinéola; a beautiful and moving 84-minute documentary, The Inertia Variations; and various book publications, including biography Long Shadows, High Hopes: The Life and Times of Matt Johnson & THE THE.