Oakland's abracadabra Announce Upcoming LP 'shapes & colors'

Oakland's abracadabra is announcing their new album, shapes & colors, which is coming out via Melodic on January 20th, today with their new single "in a photo".

From the get-go, a triangle plays a taunting rhythm alongside a spunky palm-muted guitar, until the chorus where the vocal line is joined by a plinky descending guitar part, doubling the chromatic vocal melody to really drive home the sass.

abracadabra, helmed by Hannah Skelton and Chris Niles, delves into disco, dub, and art-rock on shapes & colors. Imbuing every song with an undeniable groove replete with 80s inspired new-wave synths and delightfully psychedelic rhythms, the band tackles the trials of late-capitalist anguish with a smirk and a bit of optimism.

On their new single, the band writes;
"'in a photo' is a playful jab at the phonies of the world. On this one we really loved the way a fairly dry and doubled vocal added some tension to the melody, making it seem a bit less refined. At times you can sense the push and pull between the two unison voices, and we felt that added to the subliminal message."

For the "in a photo" music video, Chris Niles and Hannah Skelton race larger-than-life pencil & eraser soap box derby cars. The pencil was originally built and raced by artists Richard Shaw and Gregor Weiss in 1975, and the eraser was built by Richard's daughters & son-in-law, Whitney Shaw, Alice Shaw and Torin Brandborg, to race alongside the pencil car at the 2022 SFMOMA soap box derby.

"I became so inspired by the pencil and eraser cars that I volunteered to build fake car interiors from recycled packaging and paper maché to accompany them" says Skelton. Her newfound love for fabrication eventually lead to the creation of an underwater set for the band to perform in later in the video.

Watch the new music video here:

Photo Credit: Kristin Cofer