Saints in the Wethouse arrives December 13th via XL Recordings, with first single ‘Consumer’ out now.
Alternative auteur rapper Blackhaine has announced his debut album, Saints in the Wethouse, out Friday November 13th via XL Recordings. First single ‘Consumer’ is out now, with an accompanying video directed by Elena Isolini. He’ll premiere the album live this weekend at his headline appearance at Warsaw’s Unsound Festival on October 4th.
‘Consumer’ is an intense brooding and cinematic gothic rap track with blown out low end, elegaic organ lines and a Jamaican dancehall artist Mad Cobra sample.
Saints in the Wethouse is a 12-track gut punch of drunken confession and brawling swagger, hardcore songs about a deserted man seeking salvation through exhaustion. Six years on from Blackhaine’s story beginning in a Blackpool hotel room, which led to 2020’s Armour EP on classmate Rainy Miller’s Fixed Abode label, the north west England artist comes into his own here as not just a raving rap force of nature, but a songwriter capable of noise rock discipline and bleeding heart industrial folk ballads in equal measure.
Mainly realised in studio by Blackhaine himself and reinforced by executive producer Wraith9 (EsDeeKid, Fakemink), the record features a tight-knit crew of North West collaborators, Rainy Miller, Croww and Space Afrika, with additional contributions from Ship Sket, Vanessa Bedoret and Gabe Evans. That same intensity carries over from his live shows and art-world exhibitions, work sought out for stage and creative direction by the likes of Playboi Carti, and presented at the Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, Sónar, Manchester International Festival, the Venice Biennale and Club2Club.
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Saints in the Wethouse tracklist
- Cold Shoulder
- Northside Needs Me
- Hostel / Valium
- 5 Days
- Consumer
- Born From Wound [Floodlights]
- The Wind
- Pyrex
- Never Alone
- Artwork
- Spirit
- Saints in the Wethouse
Saints in the Wethouse is available to pre-order now.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
