French synthwave merchant Perturbator has added four UK dates to his Excess European tour next year. The electronic artist (real name James Kent) has lined up gigs in London, Glasgow, Manchester and Bristol in November 2021. The highly-anticipated autumn shows will follow Kent’s only other scheduled appearance in the UK next year, an August set at the ArtTanGent festival at Compton Martin on the outskirts of Bristol. Tickets for all of these dates are available to buy here.
I will be on tour in Europe in Oct / Nov 2021, with my brothers from @_HEALTH_ , @authorpunisher and @HangmansChair
The new album is being prepared for release, so expect a lot of new things pretty soon.
For tickets and infos : https://t.co/iQX9sshuw7
Poster by Metastazis pic.twitter.com/b2qDZu0lik
— Perturbator (@The_Perturbator) December 3, 2020
Peturbator will be joined on the Excess tour by Los Angeles noise-rockers Health; San Diego experimentalist Tristan Shone (aka Author & Punisher); and doom metal outfit Hangman’s Chair. The touring posse will be familiar company for Kent: he had previously collaborated with Hangman’s Chair on the French band’s 2018 track Tired Eyes; and more recently linked up with Health on BODY/PRISON from their 2020 remix album Disco 4: Part 1, a record which mxdwn.com described as “an incredibly exciting listen.”
The Excess tour will offer Perturbator fans an opportunity to hear music from the artist’s as-yet-untitled fifth studio album. A release date for the LP – his first since 2016’s The Uncanny Valley – has not been confirmed yet. However, recent tweets from Kent himself suggest that it will be available “way before November 12th” when his 32-date European tour concludes with a homecoming performance at Paris’ historic Olympia concert hall.
The upcoming record may have been a long time in the works – its lead single Excess was released back in February 2019 – but Perturbator has promised it will be worth the substantial wait. In February the Parisian musician took to Twitter to reassure fans, saying “The album is still in the making (90% finished I’d say). I apologize for the wait it takes and still can’t announce any release date as I don’t want to make empty promises, but it’s a very different album and there’s no way I’m half assing it. I hope you’ll all understand.”
Kent also suggested that the new material might provide a significant change of musical direction, with all but one track having a full vocal accompaniment. In April he tweeted defiantly on the subject, saying “People asking for an instrumental version of the LP: No. It won’t be to everyone’s liking but these songs were made with vocals in mind and removing them would be detrimental to the music. I’m okay with losing your support on this and wish you the best on your musical journey.”
Perturbator – who recently contributed to the soundtrack for acclaimed action video game Cyberpunk 2077 – was one of the electronic artists who featured in Iván Castell’s 2019 film The Rise of the Synths. The documentary, narrated by composer and legendary horror director John Carpenter, charted the origins and rapid growth of the eighties-influenced synthwave sub-culture. The film’s website hypothesizes that the evolving genre represents an “irresistible blend of nostalgia and music; of creative processes and cultural references; of reappropriation and legitimate creation” and a “…celebration of shared memories, with an ever-evolving sound now emerging as a chart topping worldwide retro cultural phenomenon.”
The UK dates for Peturbator’s 2021 Excess tour are as follows:
05/11/2021 – Electric Ballroom (Camden) – London
06/11 – St Luke’s – Glasgow
07/11 – Academy 2 – Manchester
10/11 – SWX – Bristol
