Locust, the long-running project of English electronic musician Mark Van Hoen, is excited to announce a new album, ‘Spectral+’, landing September 11, 2026 via TODO Records. Alongside the news comes the first taste of the record: Soul Sky, featuring Queens rapper Griff Spex and vocalist Olive Kimoto — plus an official music video, out now.
Listen & Watch
‘Spectral+’ pulls from a deep well of influence — Giorgio Moroder, Brian Eno, My Bloody Valentine, Boards of Canada — and bends them into something entirely its own. The record’s cast of vocalists is stacked: Olive Kimoto, Natasha Morrow, Nick Holton (Black Hearted Brother), and Griff Spex, whose industrial edge adds a jolt of the unexpected.
“Griff contacted me because he was a fan of my earlier (pre-‘Morning Light’) Locust material. So I decided to make a track using the sonic makeup of those records… It was my first time working directly with a rapper, I’m very happy it was Griff!” – Mark Van Hoen
“The core of the lyrics is about the process of detaching from overgrown situations… there’s something more in a new direction, and that feeling is propelling you to move forward.” – Griff Spex
A Long Distance Preview
Previously, Locust shared Long Distance Lover, featuring Slowdive’s Neil Halstead on guitar and vocals from Irish musician Natasha Morrow — a slow-burning, synth-laced meditation on intimacy across distance, paired with a video full of dissolving silhouettes.
Back on Stage
The announcement caps off a wave of momentum for Locust, who assembled a new live lineup fronted by Olive Kimoto and have been previewing new material at U.S. dates including Perfectly Imperfect’s Elsewhere takeover, And Always Forever Festival, and Flower Moon Festival — their first live shows since supporting Massive Attack in the ’90s.
Locust will celebrate the release of ‘Spectral+’ with a show at 2220 Arts + Archives in Los Angeles, CA on September 11.
‘Spectral+’ track list
- Shape Of Another (Vocals: Olive Kimoto, Rap: Griff Spex)
- Long Distance Lover (Vocals: Natasha Morrow)
- All of Them (Vocals: Nick Holton)
- White Light (Vocals: Olive Kimoto)
- Soul Sky (Vocals: Olive Kimoto, Rap: Griff Spex)
- No Space For Love (Vocals: Olive Kimoto)
- Love Stays (Vocals: Omotola)
- Face It! (Vocals: Natalie Foucauld)
- Going Nowhere (Vocals: Olive Kimoto)
- Midori/Falls Away From Me (Vocals: Natasha Morrow)
About Locust
Mark Van Hoen’s Locust has existed since the early 1990s, moving fluidly across IDM, My Bloody Valentine-indebted shoegaze, trip hop, and Eno-adjacent ambience — with Van Hoen having previously shared stages with Aphex Twin and Autechre. The current lineup took shape in 2024 after Olive Kimoto, then running an LA club called Heaven, connected with Van Hoen following a solo show.
Rounded out by Derek Mabra on guitar and Jaelyn Valero on drums, the band played its first show together in 2025 — its first live appearance since opening for Massive Attack in the ’90s — building ‘Spectral+’ partly from material developed onstage.
“We’re establishing this identity as a live band — we’ve really bonded, all really good friends, all rooting for it. People can see we’re a tight band, they’re not hired hands.” – Mark Van Hoen
Van Hoen has also noticed a shift in who’s showing up to the shows: a growing younger audience discovering Locust through the trip-hop revival, social media, and a new generation of cloud rap producers sampling his early work alongside longtime fans who remember the Autechre and Aphex Twin tour days.
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