We heard from New Orleans–based sonic shapeshifter Benjamin Booker for the first time in six years back in 2023 when he appeared on billy woods and Kenny Segal’s Maps LP, materializing again this past February with Segal on Armand Hammer’s epic nine-minute We Buy Diabetic Test Strips bonus track “Doves.” And now Booker is announcing a new album titled Lower, which was co-produced by Segal and will arrive on January 24 via Thirty Tigers. “I wanted to get to this sound, but I didn’t know how,” Booker shared in a press release. “At some point I decided I’m going to find it or die trying. Kenny was the missing piece I needed—he fills in all of my gaps. I don’t know what I’ll do next, but if I can imagine it, I can do it now.”
First single “LWA in the Trailer Park” is a noisy alt-rap track that bursts with bubbling synths and wailing guitars that sound a bit like the aural equivalent of strobe lights (proceed with caution). With a delicate delivery that sounds a bit like Sparklehorse, Booker sings: “I wanna live a good life.”
Check out the video for “LWA in the Trailer Park” below—which was inspired by Le samurai, Killer of Sheep, and the films of Paul Schrader—and pre-order Lower here.
