THE THE have released “Linoleum Smooth To The Stockinged Foot” (and accompanying music video), the 2nd single from Ensoulment, their long-awaited new studio album out September 6 via Cinéola / earMUSIC. The song is co-produced by Matt Johnson and Warne Livesey.
The lyrics for “Linoleum Smooth To The Stockinged Foot” – which touch upon the nascent bio-security state – were written from Matt Johnson’s hospital bed, under the influence of morphine while recovering from a life-saving operation. As fate would have it, Johnson’s weeks in hospital had nothing to do with Covid, but occurred at precisely the time Covid reached crisis proportions, making for an even more surreal ordeal. The discordant interplay between horns and fiddle is redolent of Johnson’s hallucinogenic, surreal experience, which he tried to emulate by asking the musicians to improvise over the track, without hearing the other’s contribution, as he manipulated the sounds in real time.
“Linoleum Smooth To The Stockinged Foot” is unique in that it does not feature any of the core band members apart from Johnson on vocals, guitar and bass, plus guest musicians Sonya Cullingford on fiddle, Terry Edwards on horns, Gillian Glover providing backing vocals, and hand claps from percussionist Danny Cummings. The single cover features a previously unpublished work of Johnson’s late brother Andrew (AKA artist Andy Dog) who, over the years, was very much responsible for the distinctive aesthetic style of THE THE’s releases. The video for ‘Linoleum Smooth To The Stockinged Foot’ was made in conjunction with long-time collaborators: directed by Tim Pope with editing and VFX by Vicki Bennett (People Like Us) and Peter Knight. Anya Krasnikova was the Director of Photography.
