New York based Metapop band kurt.riley+praxis has released the official music video for their darkly synth pop infused new single, “Free.” The fourth track from their upcoming, science fiction themed opus, Chrome Empire, “Free” was preceded by the releases “FTR SHK,” “Say You Love Me,” and “Evergreen.” Using the story of an android that has gained self-awareness, the Chrome Empire album addresses topics such as climate change, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality by way of a sci-fi narrative and hook-laden songwriting.
“’Free’ is my attempt to encapsulate what it feels like to be born on the morning after Fukuyama’s ‘end of history’ – in the afterglow of the Cold War, born during the consumerist apex of the Nineties in the West…watching the towers fall on television…receiving a bleak inheritance of climate change, irrevocable student loan debt, social inequality, and increasing totalitarianism. Feeling trapped amidst the end of empire, within circumstances one feels helpless to control or improve. Even that last inch – the toaster, TV, and steel-belted radials of Howard Beale’s – even that isn’t left to us, as a mid-century, middle-class existence simply becomes too expensive for all but the upper echelons of society. And so many of us are too exhausted to be mad as hell anymore. We’re just heartbroken.” – kurt.riley+praxis
Click for Limited edition CD copies of “Free”
Riley’s colorful career includes records produced by Beyoncé/FKA Twigs/Run The Jewels collaborator BOOTS and Grammy Award-winning engineer Will Russell. He has performed at events across New York, including the Ithaca Festival, the CFCU Summer Concert Series, Music Is Art Buffalo, and at The Center for the Arts of Homer.
The recipient of a grant from the NY State Council on the Arts & the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County, NY, Riley has been named one of the best live performers in the region by The Ithaca Journal. Sirius/XM Radio has broadcast his music internationally via satellite, and Riley’s music has been broadcast on terrestrial stations in Toronto, Memphis, Portland, and beyond.
