Luboku - Pale Blue Dot / Lift Off

14 Feb 2020

Luboku

// MUSIC

Luboku Returns With Elegant & Futuristic EP 'Pale Blue Dot / Lift Off'

+ Announces First Australian Headline Tour Dates in Over A Year 
+ Supporting Running Touch This Weekend in Adelaide 

FEBRUARY 14, 2020 – Marking 30 years to the day when NASA’s Voyager 1 space probe took a picture of Earth as it was making its way out of our solar system, today Australian electronic musician, producer and multi-instrumentalist, LUBOKU shares a bold new EP titled, “Pale Blue Dot / Lift Off” and its feature single, ‘Lift Off’.   

This iconic photograph which presented our home planet as being nothing more than a speck of dust suspended in a scattered ray of light struck Luboku. Its significance was perhaps explained best by American astrophysicist, astronomer and cosmologist Carl Sagan, who wrote: “There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world... it underscores [humanity’s] responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”    

Sagan’s words inspired Luboku to reflect on humanity’s fragility in the vastness of our known universe – how our actions individually and as a collective species dictates our future; prosperity or demise.   

“You can’t help but put into perspective humanity’s insignificance when you look at that image of a tiny speck of dust. Our hopes and dreams, our loved ones and memories, failures and fuck ups as an individual and species are presented on nothing more than a tiny, pale blue dot surrounded by the enormity of the universe,” says Luboku.   

Beginning with the sampled voice of Carl Sagan reading an excerpt from his book of the same name, ‘Pale Blue Dot’ immediately whips the listener into a dystopian scene reminiscent to Blade Runner 2049. Its shadowy, mesmerising layers of arpeggiated synths and deep basslines skitter across a low, rumbling drone, expanding to the climax of a dark and twisted phrase, “every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader".    

It’s a sharp look at our current state of politics and the somewhat globally coordinated effort against combatting climate change. How our actions today affect the planet we live on tomorrow.   

On the EP’s feature track, ‘Lift Off’ LUBOKU showcases skills in combining deep house and electronica with his smooth toplines to deliver a mind-blowingly futuristic alt-pop banger. The gentle sound of an acoustic guitar rocking between the notes of a single chord, accompanied by the lyrics, “I can’t light it up, now faced with all this noise – wasting all my breath on the things I’ll never know,” reflect Luboku’s feelings toward that iconic photograph. The fragility of our planet and life itself being destroyed by humanity’s impact on this Earth.   

‘Lift Off’ pulses with a percussive synth rattle, a haunting, echoing vocal sample and muffled space talk – all combining to beckon the listener deeper onto the dancefloor. You can feel it in Luboku’s  production qualities that he’s harking back to the sounds of mid-2000s house, techno and electronica heard in the likes of early Cut Copy, The Presets and Midnight Juggernauts.   

And for anyone who’s craving a truly euphoric experience, Luboku’s cleverly or rather, kindly included a second version of this track as ‘Lift Off – Instrumental’.    

Between performing more than 25 shows across the past 12 months in both Australia and New Zealand, Luboku has been steadily honing his craft while writing nonstop. On this new EP, Luboku takes one small step to what will be a larger body of work, expected to drop in mid-2020. But before then, Luboku asks all of us to consider that pale blue dot – our place in the universe – our kindness to both one another and this planet.  

CATCH LUBOKU LIVE:  

Saturday February 15 – Supporting Running Touch - RCC, Adelaide Thursday, April 2 – Colour Nightclub, Melbourne Friday, April 17 – The Gallery, Oxford Art Factory, Sydney 

STREAM/DOWNLOAD ‘PALE BLUE DOT/LIFT OFF’ FROM FEBRUARY 14: https://luboku.lnk.to/PBDLOep 

Luboku - Pale Blue Dot / Lift Off