Editor’s Note: Welcome to Quarantainment, Vanyaland’s new series on what to watch, what to hear, and how to deal as the world engages in social distancing to combat the spread of coronavirus, or COVID-19. We’re all at home, we’re all online, and we’re all in this together. #StayTheFHome
It feels like a million years ago Big Black Delta played Boston Calling, casting the September 2013 festival awash in heavy electro and vivid electronic-music compositions. Jonathan Bates’ project has been keeping a steady beat ever since, most notably on 2017’s WHORU812, and this week returns with a visceral new thumper called “Summoner”; it feels and sounds like an appropriate mood for these isolated times.
“I remember drunkenly watching ‘Flight Of The Navigator’ one morning and I wanted to make a song that captured how I felt at that moment,” Bates says. “I’d been up since 1 a.m. drinking. The sun was coming up. It was super orange because booze does that to my eye sight. The movie provided the nostalgia and the feeling of flying. That’s why that woozy synth comes in and out in the chorus. At the same time, it was medieval and witchy sounding. Like something you would play to summon a demon.”
These days, we need all the friends we can get. Fire up “Summoner” below.