Lucas Nathan a/k/a Jerry Paper has announced his third LP, Carousel, to be released on Bayonet Records in March. The first single, “Destroy”, is immediately disruptive, with synthesizers, drum machines, guitars, and other unfamiliar noises that challenges what “real” music and “real” instruments are. It opens with quasi-orchestral sounds that can only be related to, fittingly, carousel music. It is wistful, psychedelic, and deliberately off-kilter. “Destroy” juxtaposes thought-provoking, philosophical lyrics and imagery with nearly unidentifiable noises (an example of which can best be heard in the “Destroy” intermission of distant voices and a more proximal “God damn it, Cheryl”).
Along with the song, Jerry Paper has also released a rather unique promo video that demands the question of art, censorship, and morality. The video shows humans having sex with pigs and other animals, the only censorship being pixelated blurs on genitals. Throughout his career, Jerry Paper has brought philosophical metaphors into the realm of abstract musical projects. Like his two previous albums, Feels Emotion and Big Pop For Chameleon World, Carousel is a concept album, this time about the greed, corruption, and waste that flood human existence. Jerry Paper’s promo video for Carousel is bizarre, full of cynical humor, and an interesting way to prelude an album that will surely be pleasingly strange.
Carousel is out via Bayonet Records on March 31st. “Destroy” is streaming below.
