Marika Hackman

Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Marika Hackman unleashes the ooze on her new single ‘Slime’, a song about the tremulous beginnings of a relationship. Premiered on Huw Stephens’ new show for BBC 6 Music, ‘Slime’ arrives accompanied by a steaming-hot video co-directed by Marika and Anne-Sofie Lindgaard.

Opening with a pensive vocal line and ghostly guitar strums; ‘Slime’ leans into its lurking menace as the drums pound and the music becomes more dissonant before blossoming into a sweet chorus.

Marika says: “‘Slime’ tracks the excitement of falling in love, tinged with the chaos of watching the fallout from it happen around you.”

Where some of Marika’s early records pummelled the gut, forthcoming new album Big Sigh, out 12th January on Chrysalis Records, toys more with the mind. Marika’s records have always had a wry, disturbing preoccupation with bodily expulsions - blood, puke and beyond. These are all the physical elements of being alive that make Marika feel out of control, the ones she so desperately avoids in real life but on this album she confronts corporeality with brutal honesty. Big Sigh - the “hardest record” Marika has ever made - is, as its title suggests, a release of sorts. It is an edifying blend of sadness, stress and lust, but mostly - and crucially - that of relief.

Leaving the carnal days of her 20s behind, this album is less a photo-real documentation of the moment, but more like an artist peering through a gap in a door to reassess her former life. In her never-ending pursuit of untangling her internal universe and exploring complex melodies, she has made her most honest and brave album yet. Not only has Marika played every instrument save for the brass and strings on Big Sigh, but produced it too, along with Sam Petts-Davies [Thom Yorke, Warpaint] and long-term collaborator Charlie Andrew. “I’d always produced on my records, but I'd never backed myself enough to actually say that I had. I liked being a sponge and I saw the first two thirds of my career as a learning experience - I would sit back in a slightly deferential position to allow the dynamic to work. With this album I got to a point where I realised I’d done the learning, I knew what to do.”

The album is available to pre-order now, with an exclusive indie stores coloured vinyl with a limited edition print, 100 numbered screen-prints created by Marika for Rough Trade shops, and signed formats with a bonus acoustic CD from the official store HERE. Marika has announced a January instore tour which will be followed by a headline UK and EU tour.