An eccentric psych-tinged soundscape that shimmers with a palpable sense of longing, self-professed “high priestess” of underground disco-pop Vanity Fairy has shared her latest single, ‘Jungle Jim’. A potent blend of soft vocals, dreamy synths and sultry beats, the track seduces listeners with its faux-calme quality, luring them into Vanity Fairy’s delightfully ambiguous aural mirage.
Following on from her recent release ‘Love of My Life’, Vanity Fairy’s latest cut is as enigmatic and elusive as the thoughts that formed it. “‘Jungle Jim’ was one of those songs that just came out more or less in one whole piece, or at least the vocal did,” she explains. “I like that it happened that way, because the instrumental (most of which my brother and co-writer/producer Sam E. Yamaha came to me with) feels very instinctual to me – very dream-like and languorous… and also very jungle-y, at least to my ears. It sounds so calm and dreamy, but there’s something really uneasy and unsettling happening in the music underneath everything. Not that the song’s about that, it’s just really the mood of the song to me…
The noises and few fragments of intelligible words I sang in the first take I wanted to keep, so my brother and I set about trying to remain as faithful as possible to those original sounds with the words we used. So the lyrics have an unconscious quality, and a kind of retroactively imposed automatism – if that’s not a contradiction (which I think it is). I like how fractured and fragile the language ends up being. And I like how un-authored it feels. Like I went into the song and disappeared.”
Ahead of a string of UK tour dates supporting Pip Blom in February, Vanity Fairy will be be performing at the DIY Magazine ‘Hello 24’ showcase at The Old Blue Last in East London tomorrow (16th Jan). Full dates are listed below
Listen to ‘Jungle Jim’ here:
Vanity Fairy UK Tour Dates 2024
16 JAN // London – DIY Hello 2024, The Old Blue Last
27 JAN // London, The Windmill
3 FEB // Folkestone, Quarterhouse, supporting PVA
4 FEB // Reading – Sub 89, supporting Pip Blom
5 FEB // Birmingham – Castle and Falcon, supporting Pip Blom
6 FEB // Liverpool – Academy 2, supporting Pip Blom
7 FEB // Brighton – Folklore Rooms, supporting Mickey Callisto
21 FEB // London, Heaven, supporting Pip Blom
30 MAR // London, The Cavendish Arms, Indie Pop Weekender
13 APRIL, Bristol, Outer Town Festival
11 MAY // Wrexham, FOCUS Wales
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Photo credit: Meadow Florence
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