Lupin - Lupin [LP]

Transgressive

£20.16

Format: LP
Catalogue No.: TRANS483X
Barcode: 5400863036386
Release Date: 6th November 2020
Genre: Pop

 ‘Lupin’ is the sound of an arrival. Across eight tracks of subverted, expansive pop, Jake Luppen’s solo debut is all sharp edges, a fractured self-portrait pieced together through left-ofcentre pop maximalism.
 Although Luppen rose to prominence as a vocalist and guitarist in St. Paul’s beloved indie outfit Hippo Campus, the songs on ‘Lupin’ feel like meeting him for the first time. He puts it succinctly: “With this record I wanted to get to the point, and say how things were, as opposed to dancing around them.”
 Written mainly in breaks during a sprawl of 112 shows for Hippo Campus’ ‘Bambi’ from 2018-2019, Lupin was an unexpected path to confidence. It also offered an escape from the grind of endless touring and a way for Luppen to process major and stressful life events directly through songwriting.
 Inspired as much by Charli XCX’s ‘Pop 2’ as it is Tears for Fears, 80s new wave and Prince, the genre-bending record holds true to a desire to make 1980s music filtered through modern technology. Featuring synth and programming contributions from Jim-E Stack and Buddy Ross, Lupin weaves together fragmented drum loops, swooning falsetto, tangles of synths and sharp guitar lines, the final product is an off-kilter popsheen, one Luppen said was guided more by intuition and feeling than anything else.
 Working alongside producer BJ Burton (Bon Iver, Charli XCX, Banks), the two spent intensive sessions collecting material, coalescing as many layers felt true to serve the songs.
 LP pressed on red vinyl and includes a digital download code.

Tracklisting:
Harbor
Vampire
Murderer
KO-Kid
Lazy
May
Gloomy
NZ