Aldous Harding-Party
Aldous Harding has released her second album, Party, via 4AD / Remote Control Records.
Aldous Harding’s music is not for the faint of heart. Disarming in its desolate imagery and stark instrumentation, her songs draw from the core facets of life: death, birth, grief and love. There are few happy endings, but the power is in how Harding enters into battle; with a dancer’s grace and a boxer’s stance. She’s known for her sinister torch songs, gentle laments and eerie odes delivered with a charismatic combination of hubris, shrewd wit and quiet horror.
For her 4AD debut, Aldous (real name Hannah) Harding worked with award-winning producer John Parish (PJ Harvey, Sparklehorse). First single ‘Horizon’ offers an enticing portrayal of that collaboration. Harding wraps her effortless voice around a simple three-chord skeleton with poise and, at times, near violent intensity. The confrontational accompanying video, directed by Charlotte Evans, and produced by Evie Mackay, features Harding’s own mother performing a transfixing blend of Aikido and physical theatre in the New Zealand hinterland.
Latest single, ‘Imagining My Man’ is an intensely intimate listen as Aldous explores the curiosity of a lover’s idiosyncrasies. The video was created by ‘Horizon’ director Charlotte Evans and once again draws focus on Harding, tracking her movements throughout the city of Auckland.
With echoes of folk luminary Linda Perhacs, Harding’s work is one step removed from the modern world, lying in the more savage and dramatic terrain where Kate Bush and Scott Walker reside, wrought with a wry wit and tenacious gall. Party is Aldous Harding at her unnervingly best yet.
ALDOUSHARDING.COM
