As their debut album edges closer into sight, HELLO COSMOS, today release its stimulating title-track: “Dream Harder”.
Offering ruminations on the possibilities of virtual reality, the vitality of culture, and the dominance of technology in our day-to-day lives, “Dream Harder” is a mind altering new single laced with febrile notions of escapism.
Complete with an immersive AR inspired official video by Creative Arthur, “Dream Harder” invites us to do just that, with visuals designed to catapult the viewer through a rush of Earth’s most exhilarating experiences in a matter of minutes. Take their hand, switch-on and leave this humdrum life behind. Watch here. Loosely inspired by John Carpenter’s ‘They Live’, the official video for new single “Dream Harder” plays into the record’s core themes of reality and technology blurring inextricably. As Adam Smith of Creative Arthur says:
“We imagined the future of this synergy with advanced tech within our lives and personal systems and how marketing, social media and subliminal messaging within it become harder and harder to escape. As they combine and we go deeper, it feels more and more like an interface, like reality is being augmented and our lives take on increased gamification. Points, prizes, bad guys and level ups. With our human reality progressively being augmented the lines are constantly blurring.”With its solar surfing riff, wormhole warped synthesisers and malfunctioning 8-bit breakdowns, “Dream Harder” is a sci-fi sculpted wonder. As bold in its sonics as it is in its visions, it’s a microcosm of what is to come from the band’s eagerly awaited debut album. Expanding on the complex themes that flow through their new album, Ben Robinson of the band offers further explanation of what to expect from ‘Dream Harder’:
“Times are tough, horizons are doom and gloom but our reality is driven by our focus and our intentions. That’s why we are releasing Dream Harder now. We need to remain dreamers, we need to think our way through, we need to hold our dreams, not our fears, in our minds.
This album is packed with energy, positivity and raw emotion. It’s a gift from us to you. It’s been created for fun, for reflection and to pass forward the ecstatic moments of life we have shared. It’s music and to us music is about taking the dark moments and making some light.
It’s about sharing an emotion, getting it off your chest and putting it out there for other people to connect with so they can know they are not on their own with their feelings.It’s about connection & compassion, the core of the human experience.
It’s about Dreaming Harder…..”
On their new album, Hello Cosmos want to shake humanity out of the comatose, fearful and isolated world it currently lives-in and dare to dream of a new and utopian one that awaits tomorrow. Fusing sound and vision, art and activism, multimedia and technology; ‘Dream Harder’ encourages people to use technology and not be used by it, while beaming a resounding message of positivity to counter a year otherwise consumed by inescapable negativity. Harnessing a cataclysm of sounds that owe as much to the snarling post-punk of the Fall as they do to the robotic future-facing electronica of the DFA Records canon, its tracks would feel as at home in a moshpit as they would on a dancefloor; it’s a record that looks to reunite their long-since departed crowds under one virtual roof.
With over 20 collaborators across its 11 songs, ‘Dream Harder’ is confirmed to feature guests including: James Smith – lead vocalist in Yard Act, Ila of Tallsaint & Loux fame, Emma Banks of Galaxians, Emily Ingham of Mi Mye, and many more.
The follow-up to their “Fuse” single earlier this year, “Dream Harder” also preempts a creative boom of upcoming activity from the band including: an album visualiser with animation & augmented reality, a full remix album by an all-star cast of DJ/producer talent (inc. Jagz Kooner, Richard Norris, Jinku and others), visionary new videos courtesy of Vidzinvader and much more.
In a Corona-blighted year, the latest project from the Manchester-based creative collective will blow away the cobwebs with a bold and resonant bang. A record ultimately about euphoria and escapism, it’s one the world needs right now. ‘Dream Harder’ is out 27 November, via Cosmic Glue.
‘DREAM HARDER’ – TRACKLIST
FUSETONIGHT, TONIGHT, TONIGHT, TONIGHTRAISE THE DAWNFREQUENCY FIELDSTHE COSMIC TRIGGERSTEP OUT OF THE SHADOWSRUN FOR PRESIDENTLET LOVE BE THE ISLAND UPON WHICH WE STANDDREAM HARDERRENEGADE LOVEDOWN THE LINE (ACOUSTIC BONUS TRACK)