{"product_id":"joyful-death","title":"Joyful Death","description":"\u003cp\u003eSonikku release their new LP \u003ci\u003eJoyful Death\u003c\/i\u003e via Bella Union. “I love songs that make you want to cry and dance at the same time,” says Tony Donson, the London-based musician who records as \u003cbr\u003eSonikku. That sense of unfettered release and liberation drives his new album, \u003ci\u003eJoyful Death.\u003c\/i\u003e A fluent, fertile and full-colour hybrid of vibrant Italo-house, liquid synth-pop, righteous disco and French philosophical asides, it’s an album that signals the emergence proper of Sonikku – a fully formed dancefloor artist. It’s also a farewell of sorts, perhaps, but with an emphatic rebirth at its heart. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA fully realised, coherent pop record that showcases my craft as a song-writer and producer.” Total control of his craft is swiftly asserted on \u003ci\u003eLet the Light In\u003c\/i\u003e, where the influences of lost-in-music disco and the Pet Shop Boys merge under vocals from immersive, exploratory British singer-songwriter Douglas Dare. The pace accelerates as \u003ci\u003eWKND\u003c\/i\u003e gets into a groove pitched somewhere between Madonna, Daft Punk and Indeep, with LA future-pop singer LIZ primed for dancefloor abandon on vocals. Meanwhile, Sonikku’s independent intent is firmly asserted on the freestyle-inspired \u003ci\u003eDon’t Wanna Dance with You\u003c\/i\u003e, where singer Aisha Zoe coolly brushes off unwanted advances in favour of dancefloor pleasures. Liz assumes vocal duties again for \u003ci\u003eSweat\u003c\/i\u003e, a song fully equipped to make dancefloor devotees do as its title suggests. Dreamily melodic evidence of Sonikku’s dynamism (and love of melancholy Swedish electro-pop queen Robyn) beckons on \u003ci\u003eX Hopeless Romantic\u003c\/i\u003e, where Little Boots contributes a sweetly loved-up vocal over a sublimely infectious chorus. Pummelling synths signal a dramatic shift of pace on the almost electro-darkwave dash of\u003ci\u003e Remember to Forget Me\u003c\/i\u003e, where actor\/singer Chester Lockhart presides over a summit meeting between Depeche Mode and New Order. Performance artist Tyler Matthew Oyer takes the vocals for the Italo-disco-inspired title-track, a vividly imagined album manifesto – of sorts – inspired to varying degrees by an 1892 poem, French thinker Gilles Deleuze’s concept of the “body without organs” and a 1997 anime called The End of Evangelion. Finally, that grand piano takes over as Dare returns, presiding over an achingly stripped-back version of \u003ci\u003eRemember to Forget Me\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJoyful Death is a hugely confident and self-contained leap forward for Sonikku.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bella Union","offers":[{"title":"Green | LP","offer_id":50479246311755,"sku":"1085148","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50479246508363,"sku":"1085147","price":5.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/2f782ff9-2668-40ac-83a1-1a419b4e03a7_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727504961","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/products\/joyful-death","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}