Earth Tongue – Ritual: 13th Floor New Song Of The Day

Celebrated Aotearoa duo Earth Tongue have returned with a brand new single, Ritual, released today via In The Red Records, alongside its cultish music video.

Here is the blurb with more:

The song was produced by American multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, Ty Segall, best known for revitalising garage rock with a mix of psychedelia and punk.

What started as Segall’s challenge to make an a cappella track quickly evolved when drummer Ezra Simons unearthed an archived riff, sparking the song’s creation. The resulting genre-bending four-part harmonies take singer/guitarist Gussie Larkin back to her beginnings as a choral singer. During tracking, Gussie and Ty went full nerd mode, collaboratively writing each harmonic line and painstakingly adjusting notes along the way. ‘Ty’s ear for harmonies is a bit more twisted than mine’ says Gussie, ‘It was great to have his harmonic perspective to bounce off.’

Ritual embodies what Earth Tongue does best; raw analogue production with a live feel, and a new emphasis on forward-facing and isolated vocals. Thematically it carries a futuristic hopefulness, wrapped up in the duo’s harmonious and powerful melodies. On creating the song, Gussie shares “The experience of writing the song made me realise we have a lot of freedom to explore with this band.”

Filmed in the woods outside of Berlin, the music video is an homage to 1970s horror cinema complete with custom made red robes and chainmail. Drummer and cinematographer Ezra worked alongside regular collaborator Oscar Keys to bring the idea to life – “In the past we’ve made music videos that are cinematic montages or moments from imagined movies,” he says, “This time we thought we’d take it further by adding dialogue and actors. We also wanted to lean into the trope of rock bands donning druid robes and frolicking in the forest, but do it Earth Tongue style”. 

Since the release of their 2024 album Great Haunting, the band won ‘Best Group’ at this year’s Aotearoa Music Awards, appeared at Hobart’s Dark Mofo and London’s Desertfest, supported Queens Of The Stone Age and have been the centre of a lot of buzz in the global alternative music scene.

Now based in Berlin, Earth Tongue are stepping into a really exciting new stage of their career as the release of Ritual coincides with their first ever tour of the USA. “We’re doubling down on what we were already doing” says Gussie. “Being able to play so much has given us a lot more confidence. Seeing the response from new audiences has been really reassuring – that we can keep it unique and weird”. 

Ritual marks the start of an even wilder and bigger journey for Earth Tongue.

Available now on all major streaming platforms.

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