Matthew E. White stuffed his debut album, last year’s Big Inner, with lavish arrangements: Strings, horns, choir vocals, and guitar all melded together to form a sophisticated, jazz-indebted whole. Now, the singer-songwriter is piling more material onto his first full-length. On October 22, Domino Records will release Big Inner: Outer Face Edition, an expanded version of the record that comes with a new five-track EP called, naturally, Outer Face.
White recorded the fresh tunes at his home base in Richmond, Virginia, setting certain limitations for himself: Outer Face doesn’t feature guitar, horns, or piano. Instead, the Virginia Commonwealth music major emphasizes percussion and bass, along with strings and a backing choir.
According to an official announcement, White “furthered the record’s soulful minimalism with explorations in tape manipulation, a bit of editing a la Teo Macero, and dub-inspired effects.” In a statement, White described the bonus EP as “a monument to love, to non-love, to the confusion of feelings, to the last half century of recorded music, to dub, to minimalism, to pure orchestration, to the human voice, to birds in the sky, to home.”
To tease the upcoming re-release, White has shared “Hot Hot Hot,” a shuffling exercise in his newly adopted minimalism. Stream the eight-minute epic below, and scroll down to watch a video teaser for Big Inner: Outer Face Edition. Track list and tour dates can be found at the bottom.
//www.youtube.com/embed/RaOK-pDM7mw
Big Inner: Outer Face Edition track list:
Big Inner:
1. “One of These Days”
2. “Big Love”
3. “Will You Love Me”
4. “Gone Away”
5. “Steady Pace”
6. “Hot Toddies”
7. “Brazos”
Outer Face:
1. “Eyes Like the Rest”
2. “Signature Move”
3. “Human Style”
4. “In the Valley”
5. “Hot Hot Hot”
Matthew E. White tour dates:
October 18 – El Paso, TX @ Tricky Falls *
October 19 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom *
October 20 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern *
October 24 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom *
October 25 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox *
October 26 – Vancouver, BC @ Richshaw Theatre *
October 28 – Spokane, WA @ The Knitting Factory *
October 29 – Bozeman, MT @ The Filling Station *
October 31 – Fargo, ND @ The Aquarium *
November 1 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Ave *
November 2 – Chicago, IL @ Metro *
December 4 – Allston, MA @ Great Scott
December 5 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
December 6 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
December 7 – Washington, D.C. @ The Rock ‘N Roll Hotel
* = with Okkervil River
