Pearl Daddy by Daniel Land

I’m happy to announce my new release, “Pearl Daddy”—a limited-edition “Concept Single” featuring two exclusive tracks, “Pearl Daddy” and “Bilal”. Strictly limited to 100 copies worldwide, it is pressed on 7” white vinyl and presented in a lovingly prepared package with a pull-out 12-page booklet. It will be released on 8 April, but the title track is available to stream now.

“Pearl Daddy” began life as a slightly geeky joke—the idea of marking my 45th birthday with a 45rpm single. From there, it turned into a broader concept informed by my reading.

I began to notice a recurring pattern: 20th-century gay writers such as Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal, and William S. Burroughs travelling to Tangier, Morocco, in search of a more hospitable climate for gay life. That detail gradually suggested a setting and emotional world for the two songs I was writing, which were inspired by the love affair between E. M. Forster and Mohammed el Adl, as described in Wendy Moffat’s biography of Forster.

Given the release’s North African context, I’ve tried to subtly expand my usual dream-pop palette with light Moroccan textures and influences, including oud, darbouka, and other Moroccan percussion. “Pearl Daddy” is one of the noisiest things I’ve released, with more distortion and grit than usual—this is a sidestep rather than a permanent shift in musical direction.

The songs share melodic fragments and harmonic relationships and are written as companion pieces. “Pearl Daddy” is intended as a standalone work; these two tracks will not be compiled or re-released elsewhere.

I’ve tried to do something intentional with the 7” format; the release is housed in a sleeve with a 3mm spine, making room for a 12-page full-colour booklet—a lavish and almost unheard-of addition for the format—containing artwork, lyric fragments, and a short liner-note essay.

I’m very happy with how this release has turned out, having put almost as much conceptual thought into it as I would an album. I hope you enjoy it too.

Autobiographical, queer-themed shoegaze with a subtle literary twist... delivered with compassion, vulnerability, and a health dose of self-mockery.

"Decadent, absolutely gorgeous..."
– BBC 6 Music.

danielland.co.uk
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