Hot on the heels of a debut DJ set at Liverpool M&S Bank Arena for Liverpool Digital Music Festival, Liverpool/London ‘virtual hardcore’ collective TOKKY HORROR have today released their latest single ‘Simulate Me’ via Alcopop! Records.
The trio also recently confirmed and announced their first ever full band live appearance for 20th March 2021 at Birkenhead’s brand new Future Yard venue, as covered by NME. Tickets are on sale now: https://futureyard.seetickets.com/
Another slice of forward-thinking, aggressive, punk-attitude-injected electronica, the track marks Tokky’s further ascent into their own imagined futuristic landscape of ‘virtual hardcore’—taking influence from Atari Teenage Riot’s concept of ‘digital hardcore’ and pushing it forward 30 years.
“ATR were showing punk must always be at the forefront of innovation,” explains producer Zee Davine. “It might look backwards to do that, but culturally, politically, and musically it must move forward. ‘Simulate Me’ was about creating an aggressive sound in a modern, virtual way. If punk is about back to basics, it doesn’t get any more basic than just me and a synthesizer.”
“I saw a piece recently that said there have been two great ages in technology, the mechanical and the digital, and we are now entering the third: the virtual,” continues Davine. “The lockdowns that have been a result of the Coronavirus pandemic have pushed all our lives, including relationships, into a more virtual space. That’s what Tokky Horror is; a virtual band. With ‘Simulate Me’ we wanted to ask what the virtual age will look like for love and sex.”
Lyrically, the track imagines a futuristic app used to create your ‘perfect’ partner, taking all the choice and categories that we’re presented with on current dating apps one step further—to create a living doll.
“We all know this isn’t how an organic process like love works,” says Devine, “and that this sort of power would be abused, creating little fulfilment or happiness. Most of us don’t truly know what we want, most of us definitely don’t know what we need. Your ‘perfect partner’ may be someone you never expected, and I feel that the virtual world of love is moving more and more away from organic romance towards a checklist of idealistic criteria.”
‘Simulate Me’ is out now on all good digital service providers and follows on from ‘Girlracer: The Remixes’, a four track EP featuring all-new versions of their debut single ‘Girlracer’, also out now.
Written and recorded by TOKKY HORROR, ‘Simulate Me’ was once again produced and mixed by Zee Davine, and mastered by Bobby Starchild. Released earlier this summer, debut single ‘Girlracer’ picked up spins from Tom Robinson at BBC 6music, John Kennedy at Radio X, BBC introducing, Hoxton Radio and a host of digital specialist shows.
‘Girlracer’ also received national press support from CLASH, Discovered Magazine, Bristol In Stereo, and UPSET magazine, and coverage from Get In Her Ears, When The Horn Blows, Listen With Monger, Soundsphere, Popoptica, Bring The Noise, Bido Lito, Planet Slop and many more blogs, zines and regional music mags.
TOKKY HOROR will be revealing further details and announcing more new music over the coming months.
‘Simulate Me’ is out now on Alcopop! Records
TOKKY HORROR live:
20.03.21 – Birkenhead – Future Yard (tickets)