Australian alt-dance trio Haiku Hands (Claire Nakazawa, Beatrice Lewis, and Mie Nakazawa) have shared their new single/video Cool For You, the latest preview of their new album ‘Pleasure Beast’, out Dec 1st on Spinning Top Records. Produced by Motez (Flume, Disclosure, Sam Smith, Tkay Maidza), Cool for You recalls ‘XTRMNTR’-era Primal Scream, The Chemical Brothers, and The Prodigy as it confronts corporate sterility and consumption with incendiary, dancefloor-melting sonics. Haiku Hands have also announced a UK tour for January/February 2024, which will come hot off the heels of their US tour with Big Freedia next month, bringing their nonstop live show – which Rolling Stone said is “unlike any other” and pairs Beastie Boys energy with wild choreo and costumery pulled from the most feverish rave of your imagination – to London, Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds, Nottingham, Brighton and Bristol (dates below).
Of the single, Bea Lewis says: “This song is about feeling yourself, being at a party and enjoying being yourself. Being with your crew and feeling everybody, it’s the antithesis of capitalism — that you need to be something else, that you need another product to feel good, that you need anything. It’s a statement that you’re already good. In fact you’re already awesome and mad and lit and you should be singing it from the rooftop and celebrating yourself and backing yourself and feeling yourself. It still gives me goosebumps when I listen to it even though I’ve heard it a million times. It’s liftoff baby!!!!”
New album ‘Pleasure Beast’ revels in carnal, animalistic joys and strikes back at society’s capitalistic vampires with a sound that channels the sonic and visual edges of The Knife, the punk ethos of Le Tigre, and the visceral rhythmic pleasures of acts ranging from Channel Tres to Gorillaz. Fighting the onslaught of the numbing algorithm, ‘Pleasure Beast’ transports you to the dancefloor — in this dimension or the next.
Today, Haiku Hands also revealed the ‘Pleasure Beast’ album artwork, created by illustrator and tattoo artist Miki Kim.
Conceived on a writing trip to Indonesia and during a 2023 US tour (which included a stop at Governors Ball), ‘Pleasure Beast’ features collaborations with the likes of Josh Fountain (BENEE, Ladyhawke), Dan Farber (Lizzo, Tkay Maidza), and TV on the Radio’s David Sitek (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, CSS).
Haiku Hands have already shared the first tastes of ‘Pleasure Beast’: Feels So Good is a Fatboy Slim-inspired cut of euphoric indie sleaze. Nunchucka is an electro-punk dance floor heater, and Ma Ruler plops you deep in the belly of an underground warehouse banger. Featuring tracks that combat ageism and the social construct of “busyness”, as well as odes to simple pleasures like Hot Cheetos and dolphin samples, ‘Pleasure Beast’ is an absolute trip.
Their new album follows the success of their 2020 self-titled debut, dubbed an “unapologetic blast of gleeful rebellion” by the NME and described as “part Scissor Sisters, Azealia Banks, Björk, and Warhol” by British Vogue. Rolling Stone says: “Armed with a genre-shifting, kaleidoscopic sound, and delivering a stage show that is truly unlike any other, Haiku Hands have spent the last few years turning nonbelievers into dedicated fans at every turn.”
Haiku Hands – Pleasure Beast // Dec 1st, 2023 – Spinning Top Records
2024 UK TOUR DATES
24th Jan | Glasgow, UK – Stereo
25th Jan | Leeds, UK – Brudenell Social Club
26th Jan | Nottingham, UK – Beta Room (Rock City Basement)
27th Jan | Manchester, UK – Canvas
1st Feb | Brighton, UK – Patterns
2nd Feb | London, UK – Oslo Hackney
3rd Feb | Bristol, UK – Thekla
2023 US TOUR DATES WITH BIG FREEDIA
29th Nov | Asheville, NC – The Grey Eagle
30th Nov | Knoxville, TN – Bijou Theatre
2nd Dec | Atlanta, GC – Masquerade (Heaven)
3rd Dec | Nashville, TN – Brooklyn Bowl Nashville
5th Dec | Washington DC – 9:30 Club
6th Dec | Philadelphia, PA – Brooklyn Bowl Philly
8th Dec | Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Bowl
9th Dec | Jersey City, NJ – White Eagle Hall
11th Dec | Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall
2023/2024 AUS TOUR DATES
29th Dec | Moreton Bay Region, QLD – Woodford Folk Festival
31st Dec | Glenworth Valley, NSW – Lost Paradise Festival
15th Feb | Brisbane, QLD – The Zoo
16th Feb | Marrickville, Sydney, NSW – Warehouse Show
22nd Feb | Melbourne, VIC – Max Watts
Photo credit: Stephanie Simcox
Thanks to Brace Yourself PR
