A Beacon School has today released the double singles titled ‘Potion’ & ‘Jon’, from his upcoming album ‘yoyo’, dropping October 13th via Grind Select.
Having his music recently featured on AppleTV+’s ‘Shrinking’ featuring Jason Segel and Harrison Ford is clearly an achievement in and of itself, but after hearing this set of first listens it is obviously earned. Each set with it’s own style and panache, what could and may be bookends for the upcoming ‘yoyo’ is, in my opinion, a slight gauge as to what A Beacon School has to offer. A vivid and lush variety within a genre that gives a wide scope and not just a cookie cutter view of music, which we get enough of in this world. This is fun. This is deep. This is music.
About A Beacon School
A Beacon School is the dream pop project of New York-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Patrick J. Smith. The songs on releases such as his full-length debut, Cola, alternate between uptempo, jangly pop nuggets, lush shoegaze and intricately-arranged electronic soundscapes.
Smith began making music as A Beacon School in 2009. A home-recorded demo single was released in 2011, and a self-titled EP by a full-band lineup appeared near the end of 2012. Smith notably played with bands such as Modern Rivals and Bluffing, and currently works with Parquet Courts’ Max Savage as part of Maxband.
In 2018, A Beacon School’s Cola was released by Grind Select. After receiving positive press and slowly gaining a worldwide following, an expanded vinyl edition of Cola was released in 2019 in conjunction with Fat Possum’s House Arrest imprint, amassing over 50 million streams, tours with El Ten Eleven and Ruby Haunt and syncs on critically acclaimed shows such as Hacks and Shrinking.
Now back with his first full-length in five years, yoyo, the official follow-up to Cola, Smith takes his sound even further with 10 tracks that are an untainted exploration of the unconscious artistic self and the oscillation of time.
The album will be announced on June 20 along with two tracks, “Potion” and “Jon” – here’s what Smith said about the two new songs:
“‘Potion’ was written in one sitting back in 2019 and has been a live staple since then. It’s about feeling a burst of excitement about something new but also the fear that accompanies it.
On the other end of the spectrum, ‘Jon’ is a song that took on many forms before its final iteration. Originally a straightforward guitar song, it ended up in its current state of electronic drone after years of tinkering with it. Although there aren’t any lyrics, to me the song has always evoked New York at night and that’s what we tried to convey with the accompanying visualizer.”
The new album from A Beacon School, yoyo, will be released on October 13, 2023 on Grind Select.
LINKS:
https://abeaconschool.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/abeaconschool
https://www.facebook.com/abeaconschool
https://twitter.com/abeaconschool
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5Kbx8AkkM7259YdQh4rTdX