Feature: Tanoki feat. Farah Elle – “Loading”
The lead single from Tanoki’s upcoming debut album File New, “Loading” is an unusual fusion of electro, trip hop and jazz, with Farah Elle featuring as lead vocalist.
[wpdevart_youtube caption=”” align=”center”]oC3GgvXvLzQ[/wpdevart_youtube]
Off-kilter even by the standards of trip hop music, “Loading” is the melding of jazz-leaning drum fills and chromatic piano motifs alongside synthetic, glitchy beats and pulses. This sonic palette, paired with clear and pristine production, aptly fits the meaning behind the track, which Tanoki (real name Paul Mahon) describes as being:
“…a commentary on what we’re doing with technology and how it’s intersecting with our lives. As we lose what makes us human in exchange for the robotic, I want listeners to imagine the kind of lyrics that might come from an android, the cyborgs we’re becoming.”
Farah Elle, who features on the track as vocalist.
This meaning is also conveyed in the presentation of the music video. Shot and directed by Tanoki himself, the video is an appropriate accompaniment piece, which blends choreographed dance, glitchy animation, and visual art, which enhances the track’s message about how we are becoming increasingly unable to discern between what is human and what is robotic.
A producer and visual artist from county Kilkenny, Ireland, Tanoki previously worked on music and visual projects under the name Geppetto, and has worked in a video editing capacity alongside acts such as Linkin Park and Walking for Cars.
His upcoming album, File New was worked on throughout the pandemic period, and is expected to be released later in 2021.
