Praises shares ‘A World On Fire’ video + announces EP

Toronto-based project of Jesse Crowe, Praises, has shared their new single, A World On Fire and you can watch the accompanying video, directed by Jordan Allen, via YouTube below. In line with sharing the music, they are announcing details of a new four-track body of work titled ‘EP4’ which is set for release via Hand Drawn Dracula on August 5, 2021. Praises will perform a New Colossus Session on July 2, 2021, at 5pm ET via the festival’s Facebook page.

On ‘EP4,’ Praises pushes beyond their recent industrial synth-based offerings, incorporating the intensity of their highly regarded live performances with an intimate, collaborative, and distanced songwriting process. ‘EP4’ was composed as a combination of two songs that never felt like they had a home until they were met with two new tracks formed in collaboration with producer, DJ, and performer Shortbloom (aka Sachin Mohindra). In this “grueling time of human reckoning,” the songs on ‘EP4’ grew slowly and reflective. This first single, A World On Fire digs into themes of mortality, identity and love with Crowe fusing these ideas with his brand of dark, introspective electronica.

Speaking about A World On Fire, Crowe says: “This song is a collaboration with my good friend Short Bloom. The hope was to embody the momentum of social justice built in chaos of 2020. The feeling of the world burning around you and lighting a torch off the simmering embers. Jordan Allen perfectly distorts the visuals to make one feel both trapped, uneasy and empowered.”

Additional distanced players of the ‘EP4’ project include members of Chandra, Sauna, Blonde Elvis, For Jane, and Beliefs. The new tracks were mixed by long-time musical partner Josh Korody (Beliefs, Breeze) at Toronto’s Candle Studio and mastered by Heather Kirby at Dreamlands.

The new body of work emerged when the Beliefs co-front, Crowe, struggled to find an outlet to release their inner conversations into a public forum. Into a place where their creative outlet has evolved and spanned over a course of 4 EPs and a debut album, ‘In This Year: Ten of Swords’. Dark and theatrical, Crowe’s influences move through the hum of Rachel Goswell’s shoegazing, the drive of Patti Smith’s poetic delivery, blending the art-gloom of Beth Gibbons’ sultry jazz with Annie Lennox’ avant-gardism.

‘EP4’ track list

1. Apples For My Love
2. We Let Go
3. Soil
4. A World On Fire

Hand Drawn Dracula will release ‘EP4’ worldwide on August 5th, 2021.