The Badger King broke up? Nope, but they got four new songs along with two new remixes of songs off last year’s triumphant Tongue and Tooth EP. The new songs stay the pretty much the same course you already know and love, albeit much shorter (not a one comes in over three minutes). While that may seem more akin to a hardcore formula, TBK actually squeeze a lot of different moods into those negative-180 seconds. More than you’d expect, actually. And much of that probably has to do with 9078686’s (‘sounds & soda’) more adventurous arrangements. M. Ritchey’s voice is, as ever, effusive (in all the best ways) and inspiring (again, see before).

The two remixes—‘Buck & I’ (Axe Cracked & Row Boat Path Remix) and ‘You Are a Great Beast’ (Dig Dug Remix)—each veer more toward the remix theory that has tattooed across its many knuckles, ‘Let’s have fun and fuck around with our songs, maybe even make one sound like a videogame,’ as opposed to the one that has (neatly) written in its journal ($15.99, Macy’s), ‘We really wanted to create a new dimension to our music and take it to places we hadn’t before. Reimagine it, if you will.’

But the abbreviated song structure we see in the new tracks sheds much light onto The Badger King’s lovechild: The Showering Dragons. An opera set to film, its story is told in the interplay between the gorgeous musical vignettes from TBK and the lush, textural visuals from the exceptionally talented filmmaker Reed Harkness. This is something special, and is not to be missed.

Future world domination, indeed.



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