The “Age of Loneliness” slinks in, shadows lengthening – despite our digital dazzle. Social media and remote work, while spinning webs worldwide, spawn shallow ties and scant face-to-face. Urban sprawl splinters close-knit communities, and the old guard grows gloomier. Mental maladies, stigma, and digital deluge deepen the detachment. The cult of the self further frays social fabric. Yet, glimmers of hope flicker in community crusades, better mental health havens, and clever tech tricks aiming to kindle real connections. It’s a fight against the fog, a bid to bind the frayed edges and stand against the stark, solitary silence.
This is the very heart of the new offering from Vamberator, comprised of Jemaur Tayle (Shelleyan Orphan) and The Cure’s former drummer Boris Williams. The band is, in their words, “a magical funky hybrid; a frisky colt on a journey to find a meaning in this age of loneliness….This is Vamberator, growing in the shade, where the most interesting plants grow: an emotional being; a sensitive flower; the animal serenader; a rebellious beast!”
Sleep the Giant of Sleeps, the debut single from the upcoming album Age of Loneliness (Unifaun Productions), boasts the bass prowess of regular collaborator Charlie Jones (Goldfrapp, The Cult). It’s a glorious fusion of psychedelia, Lee Hazlewood pathos, spaghetti western twang, oddball electronic accents, banjo twangs, and chamber pop whispers. Strings sweep in, ghostly synths hover, and haunting vocals drift through the mix. This single is a strange symphony, where the bizarre and the beautiful dance in a delicate, delightful balance.
“Chasing trains, chasing dogs, chasing dreams, they always get away,” Tayle muses on the song’s theme. “Pushing your way through that froth on a daydream, sharing the gloom with ghouls and procrastinating – it’s all part of the daily merry-go-round. But there is always an unseen presence that comes to the rescue, sometimes in dreams, sometimes in the middle of the night as you cool yourself in front of that open fridge. It’s relentless though, and here it comes again, but there’s so much to do, but close your eyes and there she is again.”
Listen to the song below and order here.
“The monster says, ‘Come into my garden, love’, and we find ourselves trawling through the streets of New York, inhabiting the mind of Lou Reed, being pursued by a creature that refuses to go away. Is it all in the mind? And why won’t it cut ‘the long tall grass’? Will we ever know?”
Shelleyan Orphan spun a spell of ethereal chamber pop. Caroline Crawley and Jemaur Tayle drew from Romantic poets and diverse melodies, crafting their 1987 debut, Helleborine, which won acclaim for its lush layers, haunting harmonies, and poetic whispers. After a pause, Crawley pursued fresh frontiers with This Mortal Coil and birthed Babacar. The band bounded back in the mid-2000s, releasing We Have Everything We Need in 2008, rekindling their organic roots.
Boris Williams, Caroline Crawley’s longtime partner and a drumming dynamo, made his mark playing with Thompson Twins and Kim Wilde. He joined The Cure in 1984. Williams’s potent percussion propelled the band’s sound, leaving an indelible imprint on acclaimed albums like The Head on the Door, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Disintegration, and Wish. His bold and brilliant beats became the backbone of The Cure’s signature style.
Caroline Crawley tragically passed after a lengthy illness in 2016. In the aftermath of her death, Tayle plucked out the heart of Shelleyan Orphan and joined forces with Boris Williams on Vamberator.
“After Caroline’s passing, I had been offered the chance to make a solo album,” says Tayle. “I had been writing on and off without a focus and not having someone to bounce off was new to me. Boris is family, and we have played together with Shelleyan Orphan live and in the studio on and off for years, so it felt very natural for us to work on this together. I am extremely fortunate to have a drummer of his calibre pounding out the rhythms on this album.”
Release the beast and crank up the volume on this one, trust us.
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