British electronic artist Max Rael takes a dark turn with a new single 'Slightly Less Than Human', the second single foreshadowing his debut album 'The Enemy Is Us', out June 20 via London imprint Liquid Len Recording Company.

Musician, writer, actor, engineer and producer, Max Rael has remixed such artists as Fish (Marillion), Last July, Kommand + Kontrol, Freudstein and Bienheldenschafgegenstand. He is also behind electro-goth trailblazers History Of Guns, formed in Hertfordshire in 1996. Frontrunners of the Wasp Factory / FuturePunk scene of the early 2000s, 'Your Obedient Servant' was championed by The Quietus and Mick Mercer among the “thirty best goth singles of all time”.

A dark, nervy electronic track with a great hooky synth melody and spoken word vocals, 'Slightly Less Than Human' was partly inspired by Japanese author Osamu Dazai. Lyrically, the narrator relays his feeling of being somehow different from the rest of the human race and his attempts to try to understand and copy other people's ways and behaviours in order to try pass as a regular person.

The exclusive non-album B-side 'When the Only Winning Move Is Not to Play' is a reference to 1983 film "War Games" and the book 'The Games People Play' by Eric Berne.

'It's about the futility of arguing with people who have already made their minds up," says Max Rael. "It seems we're living in times of fixed dogmatic polarisation where the right to take in new information and shift your thinking can be seen as somehow lacking integrity. I'm also a big fan of that Timothy Leary quote, "You are only as young as the last time you changed your mind."'

In April, Max Rael released his spoken-word electronic pop song 'Brighter Future', where he questions avoidant strategies of coping with life in a seemingly increasingly chaotic and unsafe world and queries how can we reverse course from an anticipated dystopian future.

The non-album B-side 'The People We Love Have Won (Persistence Is All)' is a darker beast, named after Coil's 2000 London performance at The Royal Festival Hall, which also happens to be tattooed on the inside of Rael's left wrist.

Spoken word, electronic music and loud drums can all be expected on the impending 12-track album, produced and mixed by Max Rael with additional mixing by Caden Clarkson and mastered by Pete Maher (U2, Nick Cave, Depeche Mode, Pixies. Nine Inch Nails). Fusing a range of electronic music styles with other genres, Max Rael is a master journeyman of existential exploration into humanity, self, society, reality, psychology, philosophy and the future.

"This is a song about not feeling like a proper person, feeling slightly less than human. I was always one of those kids who felt very different and alien from everyone else, patiently waiting for the spaceship to finally arrive and take me home to my people. The lyrics have taken on a deeper significance for me personally since being diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder after they were written which has given me a new context for some of the struggles I've had with life," says Max Rael.

"In keeping with the first video, I've decided not to use AI, CGI, filters etc. and filmed all the lighting effects live in the room. It's not that I'm particularly anti-AI. I've used it in the past. More that it just felt a good time to put it down for a while and do a project without it. The b-side, When the Only Winning Move Is Not to Play, was originally slated for the album, but didn't really fit with the flow of the rest of the tracks, so it became orphaned, and has now found a home here."

As of May 21, 'Slightly Less Than Human' is available from fine digital platforms, including Amazon, and also directly from the artist via Bandcamp, where 'Brighter Future' can also be found. 'The Enemy Is Us' album will be released on June 20 via Liquid Len Recording Company.

CREDITS
Written by Max Rael
Produced, performed and mixed by Max Rael
Additional mixing by Caden Clarkson
Mastered by Pete Maher
Released by Liquid Len Recording Company
'Brighter Future' video by Abigail Clarkson
'Slightly Less Than Human' video by Max Rael
Publicity by Shameless Promotion PR
Cover artwork & photographs by Filiz Photography
Copyright @filizphotographyuk - must not be altered or sold without photographer's permission

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