“A record about connection in its various forms, friendship, romance, parasocial relationships etc.” That’s how label Anxiety Blanket Records describe Illusion of Touch, the new album from LA-based multi-disciplinary artist Michael Robert Chadwick. With everything written and recorded solo apart from guest saxophone from Taylor Blake and guitar by Meg Duffy, the album broaches connection from the inverse angle, taking its title from a fact of subparticle physics where atoms never actual come into contact and in fact repel one another. “Many of the songs were written during the pandemic and reflect thoughts about loneliness, isolation and distance in various contexts,” as the album notes continue, “while existing in a dense city in an age of near constant contact with the outside world.”
If this sound austere or morose, then let latest single ‘Dirt Nap’ dissuade you of the notion. Supported by Blake’s aforementioned sax, the song offers a smooth, assured slice of pop. Halfway serious, halfway not, loaded with detail yet languid in spirit. “‘Dirt Nap’ is a song that may be about something or possibly nothing, I don’t remember,” Chadwick explains in his typically wry way. “Like a lot of my songs it started with a random sequencer pattern, and then a lot of slop heaped on top, slowly whittled away into something resembling a song. Then mostly rerecorded a year later and then further whittled to even more closely resemble music.”
Illusion of Touch will be released on the 20th June via Anxiety Blanket Records and you can pre-order it now.