BROOKLYN | June 30, 2023: Brooklyn-based Jiminy blasts into summer with the release of the dance single “Apocalypse Dance Party”.
Following their nostalgic 2022 LP The Phoenix, Jiminy got to work conceiving an EP of dance music of cataclysmic themes prevalent in pop culture. The idea was to get the party started with deconstructed elements of 1980s synth rock and 2000s club hits (what they refer to as “Jell-O shots at the Jersey Shore” music), and progress into cyberpunk industrial soundscapes. Four months later the six-song EP “Apocalypse Dance Party” was completed, and the first four songs will be released this summer as singles along with the EP in its entirety.
Portending doom and gloom, “Apocalypse Dance Party” introduces a paradise-weary narrator conjuring a dance party of natural disasters to end them all. Calamari pours down from tsunamis, hurricanes of Bacardi destroy coasts while masses of humanity dance till the end of time (or at least until asteroids come crashing down). The songs grow darker and more intense. Cannibalism, AI, alien invasions, doomsday devices, and fascist dystopia follow, culminating with two survivors who have nothing but photographs in Ziploc bags. They must weigh impossible decisions in a rainless world where clocks have long stopped ticking (but they still sing Auld Lang Syne). A reprise brings the dance party back in for a moment until the music fades out to screams and cheers both dreadful and ecstatic.
Apocalypse Dance Party serves up heavy doses of classic analog and modular synthesis blended with acoustic drums and bass, layers of Latin percussion and electronic polyrhythms, acoustic and electric guitars, and pianos. Written by Jimmy Harris with production by Aaron Nevezie at The Bunker Studio in Brooklyn. RYAL’s Jacqueline Ryal provides sultry vocals backgrounds, with the dynamic rhythm section of Frank Locrasto on keys and synths, Al Street on guitar, Aaron Johnston and Jesse Murphy from Brazilian Girls on drums and bass, and percussionist Samuel Torres. Jimmy Harris on vocals, guitars, and piano.
ABOUT: Jiminy is the recording project of songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Jimmy Harris. Officially formed in NYC in 2018, Harris is the primary writer working with a broad set of collaborators and session players based in New York City and the Hudson Valley. The project is inspired by a number of bands, including Gorillaz, Massive Attack, Daft Punk, MGMT, Tame Impala, and Modjo, as well as 70’s classic rock and New Wave.
“I don’t know where my music comes from. It’s possible it comes from whatever weird emotions that I have. If the mood feels good or makes me laugh, that’s what the song is about.”
“I work solo, for weeks and sometimes months on a song. I start with the lyrics, but I might have a thousand lyrical ideas and none make it into the final track. My songwriting and production ideas are influenced by my listening over the years to a lot of 70s pop. A few years ago I started to record after taking a break from music, and during the pandemic I totally dove in and was fortunate to be able to work with great people.”
Jimmy Harris
