abracadabra Releases New Single 'talk talk'

Oakland's abracadabra announced their new album, shapes & colors, which is coming out via Melodic on January 20th, earlier this month with "in a photo". The band is back today with their second single, "talk talk."

abracadabra is once again lampooning the pitfalls of modernity and technological "progress," which their proximity to silicon valley makes too hard to ignore. On "talk talk", a breezy and undeniably dance-able number, the band again calls out the phonies of the world and the sadness of their inability to see beyond their screens. A prescient song in the wake of Twitter's slow demise and rising calls to boycott social media.

"talk talk" dissects the harmful and often violent outcomes of echo chambers and propaganda and the loss of genuine human connection caused by our society's reliance on communicating through social media. Always optimistic, abracadabra insists that we can transcend this, and that divorcing ourselves from these deeply unhealthy patterns will allow us a way out. In the nicest way possible, they're telling us all to "touch grass".

On the song, the band writes,

"These days it seems all-too-easy to develop an opinion and then close yourself off from listening to and exchanging with others. 'talk talk' is brimming with hope for humanity and our ability to unite through our humanness and cultivate a genuine empathy and relationship via communication. It is the optimistic reminder to ourselves and the listener alike that we have the ability to do better even despite the pitfalls that modern technology presents."

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.

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: