Penguin Cafe Share South America-Inspired 'Find Your Feet' Single
Their upcoming album Rain Before Seven… is due for release July 7.
By: Michael Major Jun. 20, 2023
Penguin Cafe share the latest single from their upcoming album Rain Before Seven… due for release July 7 via Erased Tapes.
"Find Your Feet" is a standout rhythmic track which blends slick, tight global grooves with uplifting orchestral chops.
"This track started life as a little groove on piano and ukulele - all based on reversing shapes across the bar. It's a trick often used in South American music, hence the slightly Caribbean/South American vibe. The structure does end up being quite minimalist and then it's just a question of the other elements having fun over the top…” – Arthur Jeffes
The group will appear at this year's Wilderness Festival, followed by a UK tour in November, with Europe, Japan and North America in early 2024. Today they announce the UK run with more dates to follow.
A sense of optimism infuses Rain Before Seven… not the braggadocios, overconfident kind, but more a blithe, self-effacing optimism in keeping with the national character. Even when all signs point to the contrary, it operates within the certainty that things are going to be alright. Probably.
From the widescreen reverie of opener ‘Welcome to London’ with its cheeky nod to Morricone to ‘Goldfinch Yodel’, the self-described “Maypole banger” at the denouement, there’s a welcome sense of sanguinity, always with an undercurrent of exotic rhythmic exuberance.
Playfulness pervades, with a titular nod to A Matter of Life… from 2011, the last album title that concluded with an ellipsis. That Penguin Cafe debut is the bridge between the legendary Penguin Cafe Orchestra, led by Arthur’s father Simon Jeffes, and the much-loved descendent, led by Arthur.
It’ll become clear when listening to Rain Before Seven… that the themes explored transcend mere weather chat. In a sense, it’s a sonic diary scribbled from below the parapet, waiting for the danger to blow over.
Jeffes, like many of us, found himself in lockdown in 2020. COVID-19’s first European destination was Italy, where he and his family were staying at the time in a converted convent in Tuscany, bought some twenty years ago with his mother, the celebrated stone sculptor Emily Young.
There might be worse places to be stranded during quarantine than a hilly enclave surrounded by olive trees, though the family were faced with the same sobering fears and uncertainties that much of the world was forced to contend with.
And so titles often refer to personal experience during this period. ‘Lamborghini 754’ is named after the 40-year-old tractor he bought for his mother, which he could see from the studio as she traversed the olive grove.
Jeffes is the first to admit that he was fortunate to have space to maneuver, a luxury that was denied to millions living in cities and towns. Moreover, the plight of city dwellers seemed to eerily coalesce with a vision Arthur’s dad had that would inspire the Penguin Cafe Orchestra into life in the first place.
Penguin Cafe Live Dates
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07.06 London (UK) – Rough Trade East (in-store)
07.09 Brighton (UK) — Resident (in-store)
08.06 Oxfordshire (UK) – Wilderness Festival
11.02 Sunderland (UK) — The Fire Station
11.03 Leeds (UK) — Howard Assembly Room
11.04 Kendal (UK) — Brewery Arts Centre
11.05 Aberdeen (UK) — Music Hall
11.06 Edinburgh (UK) — Queen’s Hall
11.14 London (UK) — Union Chapel
11.16 Bury St. Edmunds (UK) — The Apex
11.17 Brighton (UK) - Brighton Dome
12.02 Bodmin (UK) — St Petroc’s Church
12.03 Bristol (UK) — Beacon
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