South-London born, Atlanta-based artist Jacob Allen is to release a new Puma Blue record Croak Dream on February 6th on Play It Again Sam. I was a fan of the previous album.
The shifting shuffling ‘Desire’ is the lead single from the record, which purports to explore the question – “If you knew how and when you were going to die, how would it change how you decided to live?’
“A Croak Dream is a prophetic dream where you see a vision of how you die,” shares Allen, “Half the songs on this record allude to how you might decide to live, act, if you somehow knew your awaiting fate. Being daring, romantic… Saying what you really mean.
A world tour was also announced with the dates ending in Dublin in Opium Rooms next June 1st.
About ‘Desire’ – Puma Blue says of first recording it in a hotel room…
“I didn’t have microphones with me or anything,” shares Allen about the early creation of the track. “I ended up embracing the raw sound of my guitar recorded with my phone, no amplification. I meant to re-dub it later, but I actually fell in love with how visceral it sounded unplugged, and so I left it as it was. This approach snowballed into an appetite for these gritty and ugly sounds clashing with something more lucid and dream-like.
Sometimes I feel like my music has been chronically shy and so with this song, it just felt time to be bold, let it all hang out, throw the paint around. A lot of recent songs have started this way, lonely and reaching for the guitar the way I did when I was a kid, a sort of old friend. Just using whatever limited tools within my reach. I taught myself guitar on an electric as a teenager and for years we didn’t have a guitar amp, so it felt kind of full circle for me.
As for the lyrics, I’m a lover asking his partner to bed, craving what she wants. It’s just a love song really. But with jungle breaks”
About Croak Dream
“A Croak Dream is a prophetic dream where you see a vision of how you die,” shares Allen, “Half the songs on this record allude to how you might decide to live, act, if you somehow knew your awaiting fate. Being daring, romantic… Saying what you really mean.
The resulting record sonically spans the low-slung iridescence of trip-hop, the visceral angst of Radiohead, and Allen’s signature vocals; at one moment breathtakingly intimate, before suddenly soaring, as in the patiently building title track—constantly blooming and aching in multiple directions, like gorgeous ivy wrapping itself around ornate structures.
Croak Dream’s mesmerizing world of sound was crafted during straight-to-tape sessions at Peter Gabriel’s Real World studios with co-producer Sam Petts-Davies (The Smile, Warpaint), in a wonderfully idiosyncratic manner compared to previous Puma Blue recordings. “‘I didn’t want to record another album like Holy Waters that just captured the sound of a band in a room’” Allen explains – so he and Petts-Davies brought song fragments to the band to improvise over, later fashioning those improv sessions into loops that were worked into the final recordings. The process resulted in a living organism of an album that surprised even those who played on it: “When I sent the band the finished album, it was as if they got to hear themselves playing on these songs for the first time.”
“I’ve put a lot of work into letting go of expectations” Allen continues, while reflecting on how the album captures him in this current moment. “Making this record became like a deep release of breath as I got further away from some of those limitations. My imagination swelled with all this new fire, I fell in love with it all again. It became less a question of what is this? and more like, what else? How far can I push this thing?” The result is a daring evolution for Puma Blue, combining bold experimentations with a sharp emotional clarity. It finds Allen at his most instinctive, embracing a memento mori awareness that drives feeling over precision and reveals beauty in distortion and risk.
Puma Blue tour dates
12 February – Numbers – Houston, TX – USA
13 February – Granada Theater – Dallas, TX – USA
14 February – Paper Tiger – San Antonio, TX – USA
16 February – Lowbrow Palace – El Paso, TX – USA
17 February – Crescent Ballroom – Phoenix, AZ – USA
18 February – Music Box – San Diego, CA – USA
20 February – The Belasco – Los Angeles, CA – USA
21 February – August Hall – San Francisco, CA – USA
23 February – Wonder Ballroom – Portland, OR – USA
24 February – Crocodile – Seattle, WA – USA
27 February – Amsterdam – St Paul, MN – USA
28 February – Outset – Chicago, IL – USA
3 March – Lee’s Palace – Toronto, ON – CAN
4 March – Théâtre Fairmount – Montreal, QC – CAN
6 March – Crystal Ballroom – Somerville, MA – USA
7 March – Irving Plaza – New York, NY – USA
10 March – Black Cat – Washington, DC – USA
11 March – Cat’s Cradle – Carrboro, NC – USA
12 March – The Masquerade (Hell) – Atlanta, GA – USA
31 March – Umeda Club Quattro – Osaka – Japan
01 April – Zepp Shinjuku – Tokyo – Japan
03 April – Sub Live – Taipei – Taiwan
05 April – Rolling Hall – Seoul – South Korea
5 May – Cafe Berlin – Madrid – Spain
6 May – Sala La Nau – Barcelona – Spain
9 May – L’Octogone – Théâtre de Pully – Lausanne – Switzerland
10 May – Santeria Toscana – Milan – Italy
11 May – Locomotiv Club – Bologna – Italy
13 May – Kino Siska – Ljubljana – Slovenia
14 May – Live / Evil – Munich – Germany
15 May – Palac Akropolis – Prague – Czechia
16 May – Porgy & Bess – Vienna – Austria
18 May – Hydrozagadka – Warsaw – Poland
19 May – Gretchen – Berlin – Germany
21 May – Melkweg – Amsterdam – Netherlands
22 May – Trix – Antwerp – Belgium
23 May – Le Trabendo – Paris – France
25 May – The Lantern – Bristol – United Kingdom
26 May – CHALK – Brighton – United Kingdom
28 May – Village Underground – London – United Kingdom
29 May – The Deaf Institute – Manchester – United Kingdom
30 May – The Glasgow School of Art – Glasgow – United Kingdom
1 June – Opium – Dublin – Ireland
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.
