“Aaron Hemphill’s dedication to unsettling sonic anarchy has survived intact… yet hints of strange pop light up the blackness” – MOJO
“…wild electronic textures abut glassine industrial beats, all the while hallucinatory vocals squirm through.” – SPIN
Nonpareils Scented Pictures is the debut solo release from Aaron Hemphill and his first recordings since an amicable departure from Liars in 2016.
Watch the video animations for Scented pictures, directed by Kateřina Blahutová (DVD JNNS) & Julia Parchimowicz (BADJUJU): https://youtu.be/RhutMIjpY-s
The songs on Scented Pictures are metaphysically restructured pop, the wealth of sounds and sonic processes at his disposal having diversified and warped since Mess, his final studio album with Liars.
Based in Berlin since 2015, Hemphill started working on Scented Pictures by recording stacks of acoustic instruments while, in his words, “doing the silliest things”. He played
the drums without click tracks, encouraged his engineer to distract him, and played the piano while allowing poorly set-up microphones to fall away from the body of the instrument. Ultimately the sound palette grew out further, taking in a vast array of virtual instrumentation too, all glitched and processed into off-kilter music.
Having sought out new sources of inspiration following a long period of focusing solely on instrumental music, Scented Pictures sees Hemphill’s songwriting take on yet another new form, mutating into something woozier and increasingly abstract – without sacrificing the hooks in the process.
Nonpareils Scented Pictures is out now
NONPAREILS SCENTED PICTURES
I Can’t Feel The Freeze Or Fade (Intro)
The Timeless Now
Cherry Cola
Ditchglass, They Think
Invisible Jets
Makes Me Miss The Misery Girls
Scented Pictures
Press Play
The Fever That Goes Up And Down
Fast Hat, Main Hat
Most Boys