Pumarosa return today with new single ‘Fall Apart’, which is available now on Fiction Records. The band’s follow-up to 2017 debut album ‘The Witch’ is titled ‘Devastation’, and will see a release on November 1st.
Having sold out a series of worldwide shows – as well as touring with the likes of Interpol, Depeche Mode – and won extensive critical acclaim, Pumarosa will play an intimate date to perform songs from the new album at London’s Electrowerkz on July 30th. An autumn run of headline shows goes on sale on 19th July, including a London show at EartH on 27th November. Fans who pre-order the album will have early access to the tickets for the tour and the first chance to hear new music at July’s Electrowerkz gig.
From the very first beat of ‘Fall Apart’, anyone familiar with Pumarosa can tell that a transformation has taken place. With a fast drum’n’bass inspired tattoo beating urgently beneath a sawing riff and a wide, synthesised expanse, this is a dramatic evolution from the band’s more guitar-driven debut, ‘The Witch’. Digging deeper into electronic influences ranging from Aphex Twin and Autreche to old jungle tunes, the shock of ‘Fall Apart’ mirrors the irreversible shift in Pumarosa’s own circumstances: shattering diagnoses, new beginnings and a strange optimism – the promise of what can be built only after total annihilation – all fed into a record that feels like an exhilarating affirmation of life.
Learning to ‘Fall Apart’ may not have come easily to Pumarosa, but what’s emerged in ‘Devastation’ is an album about transformation on a more cellular level. First came the chaos: on the week ‘The Witch’ was released, the band’s lead singer Isabel Muñoz-Newsome was diagnosed with cervical cancer, with the resulting surgery and recovery totally changing her relationship to her body (and how to write about it). Inner-band relationships also evolved following the departure of bassist Henry, which further energised Pumarosa to explore new spaces in their already-expansive sound.
The band took the work to producer John Congleton in LA, whose production on the likes of St Vincent and Swans helped convince them he could bring these songs and life-changing experiences into existence. They were joined in the album recording by Tool’s Justin Chancellor who, after becoming a fan of the band from their debut, provided driving bass performances in his inimitable style.
Introduced in suitably-abrasive style on ‘Fall Apart’, ‘Devastation’ is a powerfully uplifting album that confirms Pumarosa as one of the UK’s most inventive and ambitious bands. Songs work though questions of mortality and the pain of love while revelling in sexuality: what it feels like to ‘Fall Apart’, what it takes to carry on, and what it means to be alive.
30th July || London || Electrowerkz
18th Nov || Newcastle || Cluny
19th Nov || Glasgow || St. Lukes
20th Nov || Birmingham || Castle & Falcon
21st Nov || Manchester || Academy 3
22nd Nov || Leeds || Brudenell Social Club
25th Nov || Bristol || Thekla
26th Nov || Brighton || Patterns
27th Nov || London || EartH
29th Nov || Dublin || Workman’s Club
