Earlier this year, Australian beatmaker Flume teased everyone with Skin, the follow-up to his first LP, the self-titled Flume.The producer has been slowly unleashing his tracks to the public, initially with "Never Be Like You", which featured Canadian singer Kai, followed by his work with Vince Staples and Kučka on vocals, "Smoke and Retribution". His collaboration with Tove Lo entitled "Say It" and another instrumental masterpiece called "Wall Fuck" are the recent ones to grace the world with their presence.
The producer has been holding an online conference for a while now, including mainly himself and his Instagram account. He's been uploading snippets of Skin, each post accompanied with what appears to be explanations of the songs:
He recently sat down with Triple J Radio for an interview, talking about his firsthand experience with the 'difficult second album syndrome', given the explosive success of his previous releases. As he went on about the self-imposed pressures he had regarding the making of Skin, he mentioned that the title is actually inspired by that very baggage:
Well, I haven't exactly felt like I was in my own skin for the whole writing process. It was a difficult second record. I had moments where I couldn't write, I had moments where I was writing a lot and it was just a massive learning process for me."
On top of that I also liked the idea of calling the record 'Skin' because skin is super intimate. It's so close to you, but it's also kind of alien and weird. And that's how I hope the music comes across: it's got a soul, it's got a heart and it's living yet I want it to feel strange and a little alien.
This obviously didn't weigh him down. Skin is meant to be an explosion of sorts: festival moments following heavy dark moments, cut off by suddenly bright pop ambiance. Flume warns us it's not something to play at a dinner party.
He also described his collaborations with Vic Mensa and Kučka. Like most partnerships, this one was was born out of their all-around obsession for space sounds and all things with an out-of-this-world vibe.
Skin will be premiering on Facebook today.
Today. pic.twitter.com/07AVPin1TC
— Vince Staples (@vincestaples) May 25, 2016
The album is coming out this Friday via Transgressive in UK and Europe, Mom & Pop in North America, and Future Classic in Australia.
Here's the tracklist of his 16-piece LP:
01 Helix
02 Never Be Like You [ft. Kai]
03 Lose It [ft. Vic Mensa]
04 Numb & Getting Colder [ft. Kučka]
05 Say It [ft. Tove Lo]
06 Wall Fuck
07 Pika
08 Smoke & Retribution [ft. Vince Staples & Kučka]
09 3
10 When Everything Was New
11 You Know [ft. Allan Kingdom & Raekwon]
12 Take a Chance [ft. Little Dragon]
13 Innocence [ft. AlunaGeorge]
14 Like Water [ft. MNDR]
15 Free
16 Tiny Cities [ft. Beck]
Don't wanna wait for Facebook? Preview and download it here.
On top of all this, seems like Flume can't sit for a couple more days for Skin to reclaim and dominate the scene. He recently released "Tiny Cities", another track from the album. Read about it here.
Photo credit: Future Classic
