Dan Mangan + Blacksmith preview new album with ‘Kitsch’, announce European tour

Next year, Dan Mangan + Blacksmith release their new album ‘Club Meds’ via City Slang. Out 12th January, it follows on from Mangan’s 2011 debut ‘Oh Fortune’, concerning itself with the theme of “sedation”, according to the Canadian.

A sleepy ether effect pervades new track ‘Kitsch’, although with enough intrigue, it’s the kind of song that could actually have the opposite effect, leaving you restless. Clipped guitar patterns weave and wriggle around in empty space, with plucked strings hogging up the same space, looking for shelter. It’s a piece of constant beauty, rummaging around for inspiration before landing on a clattering climax.

“Sedation can be chemical, but not exclusively so,” Mangan explains in the album’s liner notes. “There is a great vacation from actuality going on. Maybe there always has been. It seems like everybody else is already at the party and that life is somehow easier or more fun under the fog.”

Get consumed by ‘Kitsch’ below, streaming first on DIY.

Dan Mangan + The Blacksmith have also announced a European tour. Dates: