American dark electronic duo Boy Harsher sets free newest single ‘Hard Beat’ from upcoming album GET MEAN, via Atlantic Records. If I close my eyes and listen, it’s like a steamy rendezvous behind a club in the middle of fashion week. Darkness, Eros, chrome, asphalt, abandon.
The pulsating single gives a taste of the seduction of surrender and the strength on the other side. Matthews sings “Never asked you to save me / I feel high when the lights are low,” then chants “Let’s make it real.”
In ‘Hard Beat’, the freedom found in the dark corners of letting it all go is followed by self-fortification, and it’s strange and sexy.
Inspired by Helmut Newton’s 1995 High and Mighty, the opening scene has a woman in a leg brace, played by Angel Zinovieff, being monitored on CCTV in a dingy, tiled room. It gives eerie high fashion horror. Like if the movie ‘Saw’ was done by Balenciaga. Then, we see a pair of grimy deviants in the front of a vintage Cadlliac speeding down an isolated highway. Boy Harsher frontwoman Jae Matthews is in a funeral veil singing raspily from the backseat.
The video switches between these two unnerving scenes and live surveillance footage of both. Matthews, with Boy Harsher bandmate Augustus Muller, directed the video alongside cinematographer Owen Smith-Clark and it fits the track scarily well.
Preorder / presave the album GET MEAN here. Tour stops below:
Boy Harsher live dates (w/support from Choir Boy):
25 September – Hudson, NY, USA – Basilica
27 September – Boston, MA, USA – Royale
29 September – Montreal, QC, Canada – MTELUS
30 September – Toronto, ON, Canada – Danforth Music Hall
1 October – Detroit, MI, USA – Majestic
2 October – Chicago, IL, USA – Metro SOLD OUT
3 October – Chicago, IL, USA – Metro SOLD OUT
4 October – Minneapolis, MN, USA – Varsity Theater
6 October – Denver, CO, USA – Summit
9 October – Portland, OR, USA – Revolution Hall SOLD OUT
10 October – Portland, OR, USA – Revolution Hall SOLD OUT
11 October – Seattle, WA, USA – The Showbox SOLD OUT
12 October – Seattle, WA, USA – The Showbox
13 October – Vancouver, BC, Canada – The Pearl SOLD OUT
15 October – Oakland, CA, USA – Fox Theater
16 October – Los Angeles, CA, USA – Hollywood Palladium SOLD OUT
17 October – Del Mar, CA, USA – The Sound
18 October – Santa Ana, CA, USA – The Observatory Festival Grounds ^ SOLD OUT
20 October – Las Vegas, NV, USA – House of Blues
21 October – Phoenix, AZ, USA – Van Buren
24 October – Fort Worth, TX, USA – Sick New World *
26 October – New Orleans, LA, USA – Republic
27 October – Atlanta, GA, USA – Variety Playhouse
28 October – Asheville, NC, USA – The Orange Peel
30 October – Washington, DC, USA – The Howard Theatre
31 October – Philadelphia, PA, USA – Making Time *
5 November – New York, NY, USA – Knockdown Center
14 November – Lyon, FR – Le Transbordeur
15 November – Paris, FR – Bataclan
16 November – Strasbourg, FR – La Laiterie
17 November – Frankfurt, DE – Zoom
18 November – Lausanne, CH – Docks
19 November – Munich, DE – Kesselhaus
20 November – Vienna, AT – Ottakringer Brauerei
21 November – Leipzig, DE – Felsenkeller
22 November – Berlin, DE – Columbiahalle
24 November – Hamburg, DE – Gruenspan
25 November – Cologne, DE – Essigfabrik
26 November – Amsterdam, NL – Paradiso
27 November – Lille, FR – L’Aéronef
28 November – Nantes, FR – Warehouse
29 November – London, UK – Roundhouse
1 December – Manchester, UK – Ritz
2 December – Glasgow, UK – SWG3 TV Studio
3 December – Bristol, UK – Bristol Electric (SWX)
4 December – Antwerp, BE – De Roma
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