The latest signee to Partisan Records—the label home to IDLES and Fontaines D.C.—is Skinny Pelembe. The Johannesburg-born, Doncaster-raised musician shared the news yesterday with a new single called "Like a Heart Won't Beat." Aside from 2020's "Illusion (Silly Apparition)," the new track is the first release since Pelembe's debut album Dreaming Is Dead Now from 2019. Pelembe is set to release his sophomore album next year.
"Like a Heart Won't Beat" is a refreshing recording from an artist to keep an eye on. There are handclaps! There's a piano beat that will find its way into your bloodstream like three espresso shots! Then, of course, there's Pelembe's suede vocals on top of it all. "Like a Heart Won't Beat" revs itself up for under three intoxicating minutes, leaving us hungry for more.
“The idea for the piano on this came to me years ago in Amsterdam," Pelembe said. "I didn't know I'd had whatever it was I'd eaten until I started hallucinating…fast forward past seeing myself standing on the roof of the hotel next to me, and thinking I was in the film A Perfect Storm (actually just on a static Chinese all-you-can-eat restaurant boat). Anyway, fast-forward past all that and I'm lying on a bed, seeing Clint Eastwood, playing those chords while he told me I’m ‘base level’ and not getting deep enough. Hopefully Mushroom Eastwood thinks I did him proud with this one.”
Check out the visualizer for "Like a Heart Won't Beat" below.
