Operators share new track ahead of European tour
Synth-pop trio Operators’ have shared a new song from their recently released new album ‘Radiant Dawn’. ‘Despair’ is a frantic surge of infectious melodies and lush fills featuring Dan Boeckner’s distinct vocals creating an immersive cinematic sound co-existing with the pulsing energy of keyboardist Devojka’s raw analogue hardware and drummer Sam’s driving beats.
The band previously shared the first single ‘Faithless’ and the video for album track ‘I Feel Emotion’. ‘Radiant Dawn’ is Stereogum’s “Album of the Week” and the site declared it “music for a nightclub in a moon colony. It’s music for a retro-futuristic recreation of an Eastern Europe metropolis that never quite existed. It’s music for an encroaching dystopia.” LA Weekly similarly anointed the album, saying “the first hints of greatness came with the release of EP1 in 2014, followed by the debut full-length, Blue Wave, two years later. But it’s the majesty of the 14 songs that fill ‘Radiant Dawn’ that show just how far this group has come.” .
The album’s nine tracks meld raw analog hardware with Boeckner’s distinct voice to create an immersive cinematic sound. Interspersed between the tracks are instrumental intertitles that amplify the album’s 1970s sci-fi dystopian feel. For fans of Boeckner’s catalogue, ‘Radiant Dawn’ feels like the next logical step in the artist’s two decade career, while maintaining a completely fresh energy.
‘Radiant Dawn’ was written and recorded throughout 2018 and early 2019 in Montreal and Vancouver Island. Arcade Fire’s Tim Kingsbury played bass on the album’s closing track, ‘Low Life.’ The album was co-produced by Wolf Parade’s Arlen Thompson along with up and coming Montreal engineer Napster Vertigo. It was mastered by the Lodge’s Emily Lazar (on the heels of her 2019 Grammy® award win).
Operators is a Montreal based project, featuring Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs, Divine Fits), Devojka, and Sam Brown (Divine Fits, New Bomb Turks). The band released an EP (EP1) in 2014, and released their first LP (Blue Wave) in 2016, via Last Gang Records. While recording their sophomore LP, the members of the band kept busy with a series of other endeavors, including the promotional cycle around Wolf Parade’s ‘Cry Cry Cry’ LP, a series of performances in which Operators played material from the Handsome Furs catalog (which all sold out in less than six hours), and Boeckner’s original song for the critically acclaimed 2018 film Mandy.
The band will be touring extensively in Europe over the summer, including a London headline show at Sebright Arms in September.
29 Aug – Driv – Tromsø, Norway
31 Aug – Zdravo Mladi Festival – Skopie, Macedonia
01 Sept – Elektropionir – Belgrade, Serbia
03 Sept – Durer Kert – Budapest, Hungary
04 Sept – Vintage Industrial Bar – Zagreb, Croatia
05 Sept – Flug und Flug Wanne – Wien, Austria
06 Sept – Meet Factory – Prague, Czech Republic
07 Sept – Torstrassenfestival – Berlin, Germany
11 Sept – Klub Kivot – Rijeka, Croatia
12 Sept – Kino Šiška – Ljubljana, Slovenia
15 Sept – Le Grillen – Colmar, France
17 Sept – De Gudde Wëllen – Luxembourg, Luxembourg
18 Sept – Rotown – Rotterdam, Netherlands
19 Sept – Sebright Arms- London, UK
