+/i, or the slightly more search-friendly Plus/Minus, have announced their first new album in a decade, Further Afield. Today, they’re sharing the album’s lead single, “Borrowed Time.”
The band’s Patrick Ramos described it as “an uplifting song about how resentment builds throughout the life of a relationship (the usual light +/- {Plus/Minus} subject matter), began as an exercise using a feature on the Moog Matriarch synthesizer that randomizes octaves so you don’t know where any single note will land.” He continued:
James recorded the first sound it generated and built the structure of the song around it. Chris, after recording his drum part, decided to double it in an attempt to mimic his first performance. With only slight variations in his play, each take is hard-panned to the left and right resulting in the effect of an expanded and dizzying stereo picture. An 808 was used in lieu of bass guitar and I added a frenetic electric guitar before James recorded vocals.
It comes with a video, on which Ramos said:
The video, conceived at 3:00 am on the beach on Chris’ birthday, was shot with a smartphone in almost complete darkness using Astrophotography mode. Each 4-minute take results in one second of footage which were then looped and edited together. Throughout the process, we learned that the act of keeping our heads as still as possible for four silent minutes in the dark while very slowly and deliberately moving our limbs is more unnerving than meditative. Interestingly, the red light you see in the background of one take is Chris shining a flashlight through the fleshy part of his hand between the thumb and forefinger. It’s bloody good fun.
Check it out below.
TRACKLIST:
01 “Intentionally Left Blank”
02 “Borrowed Time”
03 “Gondolier”
04 “Driving Aimlessly (Redux)”
05 “Where I Hope We Get Lost”
06 “The Pull From Both Sides”
07 “Calling Off The Rescue”
08 “Contempt”
09 “Redrawn”
10 “It Is Over Now”
Further Afield is out 5/31 via Ernest Jenning Record Co.
