Tame Impala, more specifically the mastermind behind the band himself – Kevin Parker – has become a bit of a collaborative force as of late. With a plethora of interesting works across many genres with artists like Kendrick Lamar, The Streets, and Mark Ronson; Parker seems to be trying to take on the mantle of the Aussie Damon Albarn. In keeping with the current participatory theme, the next curve ball on the agenda seems to have just been confirmed by a series of posters popping up around London – Tame Impala meets Diana Ross.
While the idea of a Parker/Ross crossover has been in the zeitgeist since late last year, the news stagnated pretty quickly. Parker was going to produce a track for Ross’ last album Thank You. In a quote from The Sun, an unknown source explained “She’s really excited to work with Tame Impala, and is ecstatic with the track,” concluding, “She can’t wait for fans to hear it.” As far as I’m aware, no credits were ever given to Parker on the album, so fans were left a little confused. But now, more than 6 months later, it seems we’ve got a whole project to chew on.
The scale of the headline collaborators would normally be enough to turn this project into something worth building some hype. No one was ever wondering if anyone else was involved with Silk Sonic, for instance. But if you take a little look at the poster… it just get better. First of all, produced by Jack Antonoff, then an extra mention to his band Bleachers, a bit of gnarly guitar playing from St. Vincent and Gary Clarke Jr (?), BROCKHAMPTON are coming back together – or maybe just a few of them – there’s even space for RZA.
Outside of new tunes, Tame Impala are currently in the midst of an extensive world tour. The tour takes the band through the US and Europe hitting most of the major festivals along the way, both weekends of Barcelona’s Primavera Sound and Budapest’s Sziget festival stand out as cracking line-ups. But if you don’t fancy a trip abroad, Tame Impala’s only confirmed UK date this year sees them play London’s Victoria Park at All Points East. Swedish fusion group Goat, South-London based post-punk outfit Dry Cleaning, and the fabulous Caroline Polachek will be joining them this August. A few tickets to the date still remain, so if you want to get in on the action you can check out here.
The poster shown above was taken by a fan, Adam Lewis.