Tokyo Indie

Tokyo Indie x Dotlinecircle are proud to announce How To Dress Well’s return to Japan for a special Tokyo show on March 13th.

The solo project of Tom Krell, How To Dress Well’s burgeoning career began in 2009 when, having just moved from Brooklyn to Berlin, Krell’s songs began to emerge online via a hugely prolific string of free, digital EPs posted in anonymity on his blog. Combining a gorgeous falsetto with fractured R&B-influenced beats, an instinctive ear for subtly devastating melody and elements of noise, sound collage and avant-garde composition, Krell’s debut album Love Remains offered a beautiful window into a startlingly realised artistic imagination.

Praised for both its conceptual strength and immediate emotional resonance, Love Remains duly garnered vast critical acclaim and highlights such as “Ready For The World” and “Decisions feat. Yuksel Arslan” saw Krell accredited with having given birth to a new, narcotized strain of R&B that has since spawned a host of imitators.

Since Love Remains, Krell has toured the world, recorded with an orchestra (the Just Once EP, with proceeds going to raise awareness about mental illness) and, always prolific, written and recorded a lot of new music – all whilst continuing work on a philosophy doctorate. His new LP “Total Loss” was released 3rd October on Hostess Records in Japan.

“I made Total Loss over the course of a long year, 15 months or so. These songs were written in Brooklyn, Chicago, Nashville, and London, between September of 2010 & January 2012”, explains Krell. “I spent a lot of this long year very unhappy and confused. I always want to live gracefully and wistfully and with love and possibility: I found myself feeling stranded, left alone and depraved, and generally run the fuck down. Mourning people who have passed and – even more horrifying -mourning people still alive, still in my life. While writing these songs I was trying to learn to lose in a meaningful way and to sustain loss as a source of creative energy. I have learned that optimism and mournfulness are not opposed moods or modes of life: for me, for whatever reason, this was a hard lesson to learn. I feel like I’ve learned so much and continue to learn so much and this makes me very, very happy.”

Whereas “Love Remains” was a study of love in its darkest hour, “Total Loss” is an attempt to find one’s way out of darkness, even when there seems to be no light ahead. Co-produced by Rodaidh McDonald (the XX), the album touches on many of the same sounds as Love Remains but incorporates a range of other influences and showcases Krell’s evolution as an artist. The increased fidelity of these recordings also highlights Krell’s arrangements and graceful voice in ways which Love Remains had only hinted at. All the elements of Love Remains that enraptured are still present here – the noisiness, the moodiness, the layers of swarming voices – but stand alongside other complex elements: the elegant weeping arcos and pizzicatos of neo-classical music, the rude drums of trap-rap, and the sweet, special and sentimental moments of Janet Jackson’s Velvet Rope are all swept up and embraced in the deep beauty of Total Loss.

Krell’s live show is currently taking the world by storm, capturing the beauty and intensity of his studio recordings and then some. This will be a truly special show that you don’t want to miss.

March 13th (Wednesday) @ Shibuya, O-Nest

O-Nest booking line: 03-3462-4420

Special Thanks：Hostess Entertainment

Album Release Information
artist: How To Dress Well
title: Total Loss
label: WEIRD WORLD / HOSTESS
Release date: 2012/10/3
Price: ¥2,100 (inc. VAT)

January 24, 2013