(Watch self directed video / Listen)

Kojaque has today premiered new single ‘Casio’ (ft. Maverick Sabre), alongside a brilliant new video available now on Soft Boy Records / Different Recordings. It’s the final preview of the Irish artist’s much-anticipated debut album ‘Town’s Dead’, which will be released on June 25th and is already receiving widespread acclaim. With further support across Radio 1, 1xtra, 6Music, COLORs and more, ‘Town’s Dead’ is Kojaque’s follow-up to debut mixtape ‘Deli Daydreams:  a concept piece which became the first release of its kind to be nominated for the prestigious Choice Music Prize, and took Kojaque everywhere from tours with slowthai and Lana Del Rey to a Boiler Room documentary on the influence of his label and collective Soft Boy. The ‘Town’s Dead’ tour is on sale now for late 2021 (full details below).

Featuring Maverick Sabre – and dropping alongside another striking video, co-directed by Kojaque and Spencer Young – ‘Casio’ emerged (writes Kojaque) “after having a frank conversation with one of my good friends, who was going through a really dark time. I was trying to empathise with him through my own experience of depression and suicidal thoughts. The video is meant to signify cheating death, or defying what can feel like your destiny. Mav tied the whole song together beautifully, I was so happy to work with him on it. I directed the video with Spencer Young. I had seen his work before which I thought was really slick. We went back and forth on the concept a lot before coming to the final treatment. I’ve still got that high reflective paint on my skin.”

One of the year’s most distinct debuts, ‘Town’s Dead,’ is an expansive and urgent tour-de-force that speeds headlong into sex, violence, and the calustrophobia of your hometown. Within, Kojaque documents a tumultuous love triangle as it unfolds across New Year’s Eve, with results that are as cinematic as they are political, and deeply personal. Dark corners of parks, bedrooms, clubs, streets, and psyches are excavated, and pouring over the rubble is an artist unafraid of the vulnerabilities that are exposed when the voice rings true, because there’s just no point in being anything else. Through breakups and breakdowns, ‘Town’s Dead’ teeters on the brink, spilling from the mind of a singular talent onto streets scaffolded by a broken system but still suffused with love.

Continuing today with ‘Casio’, ‘Town’s Dead’ sees Kojaque build a distinct world and invite the listener inside it – and it’s one in which music, film, humour and at times visceral storytelling all go hand in hand.  Few contemporary rappers, after all, can claim to be an award-winning film-maker (for his ‘Love In Technicolor’ film), have been invited to talk at Trinity College’s Philosophical Society, or develop work in residence for the RHA gallery.  Kojaque is part of a new wave of Irish artists making the world sit-up with blistering and sophisticated art – ideas and work that emerged from a social revolution, stonewalled by late-stage capitalism. Welcome to ‘Town’s Dead’, where it is – despite everything – New Year’s Eve, the countdown to midnight is on, and Betty’s fella’s got a gun…

Tue-Nov-02-21  – Holland – Amsterdam, Paradiso Upstairs
Wed-Nov-03-21 – Germany – Berlin, Kantine am Berghain
Thu-Nov-04-21  – Belgium – Brussels, Botanique/Witloofbar
Sat-Nov-06-21 – France – Paris , La Boule Noire
Tue-Nov-09-21 – UK – Glasgow , King Tuts
Wed-Nov-10-21 – UK – Leeds, Belgrave Music Hall
Thu-Nov-11-21 – UK – Manchester, Yes (Pink Room)
Sat-Nov-13-21 – UK – Bristol, Rough Trade  (sold out)
Sun-Nov-14-21 – UK – Birmingham, Institute 3
Tue-Nov-16-21 – UK – London, Village Underground
Fri-Nov-19-21 – Ireland – Dublin, Olympia (sold out)
Sat-Nov-20-21 – Ireland – Galway , Black Box
Fri-Nov-26-21 –  Ireland – Limerick, Dolans Warehouse
Sat-Nov-27-21 – Ireland – Cork, Cyprus Avenue