Melbourne experimental duo friendships, comprised of artists Nic Brown and Misha Grace, have shared a new single titled ‘happyness’.
The track premiered alongside a psychedelic music video. Watch it below:
The track is taken from friendships’ forthcoming album, ‘FISHTANK’, which is slated for a September 30 release via Dot Dash/Remote Control. It follows the duo’s pair of 2016 albums, ‘It’s Vermentino Dickhead: edits, cuts & tools’, and ‘Nullarbor 1988-1989’.
Per a press release, Brown described ‘happyness’ as a “false prophecy of hope”.
“It’s a mantra with no guide or strategy to get you to your destination,” said Brown in a statement.
“It comes at a time when you are so disconnected from yourself that you repeat the propaganda so you and others don’t realise that your cogs have stopped moving. Your shell is in power saving mode with limited repetitive social cues, but inside you’ve transformed into a horse that’s infinitely falling in a vortex. Imagine that!”
The duo had initially split after a show at the end of 2017. After eight months of no contact, the pair reunited by chance at a mutual friend’s house. Grace showed Brown a video she had composed, which Brown complemented with a track he had written. The exchange was the catalyst the duo needed to reconvene and start work on a new album.
“‘FISHTANK’ is a concept set on a non-linear timeline between the blurring of two worlds,” Brown explains.
“The physical present (your world) and an alternative present reimagined and interpreted in fantasy known as FISHTANK. The narrative follows the descent of an individual through loss of self. A cold decline of skin shedding, emptiness and despair to come full circle at rebirth. Each track and video is a movement or scene cataloging [sic] each movement on the descent.”
The tracklist for ‘FISHTANK’ is:
1. ‘come on in precious’
2. ‘enjoy your memories’
3. ‘how i used to paint’
4. ‘wasp’
5. ‘smokers area 19’
6. ‘take no prisoners’
7. ‘meat sack’
8. ‘was i good’
9. ‘duet for a crying chihuahua dancing for a ring of wealthy crows’
10. ‘happyness’
11. ‘MLG_recovery patch’