Premiere: The Melancholies Unveil Hypnotic Single 'Cool Magic'

Orewa-based duo The Melancholies are back with their sophomore single 'Cool Magic', a haunting beat-driven number walking a somnambulistic tightrope between shoegaze and gothic electronic pop. Occupying a nightscape of dazed melodies and spectral vocals courtesy of Holly Coogan and Leisure's Tom Young, the dreamy song draws heavy inspiration from the colour-saturated imagery of transgressive US filmmaker (and author of Hollywood Babylon) Kenneth Anger. The Melancholies kindly lifted the lid on the origins of their hypnotic second single...

"We are massive fans of Sabbath and electronic artists like Daniel Avery and Jon Hopkins and we're always excited about making music that exists in the space between those kinds of things - that's where we feel the Melancholies belongs. Holly showed me Kenneth Anger's films about a year ago, I was instantly mesmerised and we pretty much started writing music together after we put his films on repeat in the studio on mute; his work was hugely central to our formation. I guess in a way Cool Magic is us really just describing how his work makes us feel - especially "Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome". We initially wanted to call the band 'Pleasure' after that film but it was just way too close to my other band 'Leisure', not sure how the boys would've felt about that one!"