Pleasure Hides Your Needs is out on the 24th of May, and you have the chance to hear the entire album before release.
Join The Royal Ritual at this free listening party on Bandcamp and be among the first people to hear the album in its entirety, as well as chatting to David about the LP's themes, recording and production.
Record/Vinyl
12” 180 gram black/white splatter design vinyl record in a deluxe gatefold sleeve. Featuring original artwork and photography by Vara Pappas. The sleeve is made from FSC-certified card printed with sustainable inks.
All merch orders include digital downloads plus free bonus goodies, badges and stickers. This image is a mock-up, so actual colours might vary slightly.
Includes digital pre-order of Pleasure Hides Your Needs.
The moment the album is released you’ll get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
shipping out on or around May 24, 2024
Purchasable with gift card
£25GBPor more
Compact Disc (CD)
CD in 6 panel digifile sleeve, featuring artwork and photography by Vara Pappas.
Digifiles are made from 300g white back card, made from 70-90% recycled board, with the rest of the material certified as ‘durable management’ by the FSC and PEFC.
All merch orders include digital downloads plus free bonus goodies, badges and stickers. This image is a mock-up, so actual colours might vary slightly.
Includes digital pre-order of Pleasure Hides Your Needs.
The moment the album is released you’ll get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
shipping out on or around May 24, 2024
Purchasable with gift card
£10GBPor more
Streaming + Download
Pre-order of Pleasure Hides Your Needs. The moment the album is released you’ll get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Join
now to receive all the new
music
AnalogueTrash releases,
including this album
and 55 back-catalog items,
delivered instantly to you via the Bandcamp app for iOS and Android.
You’ll also get access to
supporter-only
exclusives.
Learn more.
As disruptive as it was, the pandemic didn’t stop The Royal Ritual - the dark/alternative outfit fronted by UK-born musician, composer and producer David Lawrie - from making a dramatic impact on the alternative music scene with the MARTYRS album.
The project’s new album Pleasure Hides Your Needs simultaneously expands upon and reorients from the cinematic, dark, industrial soundscapes of the debut release.
Producer and frontman David trained as a classical pianist from the age of 7 and has worked in the music industry for many years, but The Royal Ritual was born just before the recent Covid-19 pandemic. Initially the project was a studio-based affair, with the debut album MARTYRS being produced in complete isolation in Lawrie’s private studio in Northern California.
Blending harsh synthetic tones; dark, percussive sound design; and traditional world instruments, a new industrial landscape was forged in The Royal Ritual, with the debut release being well-received by both the wider music press and the goth and industrial music communities.
Despite the act’s relatively short life thus far, The Royal Ritual has already developed a dedicated following, finding favour with fans of artists like IAMX, Gary Numan, Nine Inch Nails, Skinny Puppy, New Model Army and HEALTH.
The intervening years have seen David relocate to the UK to concentrate on making his own music as well as working with artists like CocoRosie, Phildel, and IAMX as a producer and remixer. His remix of the title track of IAMX’s 2023 album Fault Lines even featured on the EP of the same name, released ahead of the album. David’s compositional work also includes award-winning sound design for the acclaimed film Of Shark and Man.
Pleasure Hides Your Needs sees David contemplate his own life and experiences, adopting a distinctive, more personal tone than the expansive and outgoing approach of MARTYRS:
“Pleasure Hides Your Needs is much more introspective when compared to the social and political commentary of MARTYRS,” says David. “For me, it is about the closing of three distinct chapters of my life. Finding the common threads through each of those chapters in order to represent them sonically, and in a consistent way, was a really interesting challenge - if at times quite emotionally exhausting.”
The new album also incorporates another conceptual contrast when compared to The Royal Ritual’s previous work, as the nature of the project itself underwent some changes: “The Royal Ritual was conceived not long before the pandemic, and MARTYRS was created in lockdown when I was living in California. It was a very strange experience.”
“As the pandemic drew on longer and longer, the idea of live shows seemed to dwindle, and the material on MARTYRS was created with no real consideration for performing it in a live setting. With Pleasure Hides Your Needs, I definitely had more awareness of how elements might be represented in a live performance, and I think that is reflected in not only the arrangements, but in the overall writing style.”
A firm believer in maximising the audio experience, David had this to say about his approach to creating Pleasure Hides Your Needs:
“The album was originally devised and designed as a concept album for those who enjoy the LP experience,” says David. “The audio from each song blends into the next, with the exception of a gap for turning the sides of the record. For those who prefer to listen piecemeal via streaming services, the segues have been removed, in order to present the album as individual songs.”
“Two of the songs on the album are ones I wrote under my birth name, during two of the three chapters I mentioned. In order to bring them forward and reimagine them in a way that felt appropriate, I took the original acoustic guitars and ran them through a wavetable synthesiser. From there I reprogrammed the original parts and patterns for the newly synthesised voices. It felt like a very organic, yet hauntingly surreal way of reimagining things.
“Most of the percussive elements on the album are derived from manipulated field recordings, and the overall flow of the album seemed to call for subtle use of Shepard Tones at various points. If anyone has the appropriate tools to view them, there are some hidden spectral messages throughout!
“I work in so many different musical realms - as a music producer for and with other artists; a composer for film; a sound designer; a mix engineer… the list goes on.
“As I am working on different projects, I am often pulling threads from one experience to another. The Royal Ritual is no different, and the techniques I use are massively influenced by the other projects on which I am working. To me, Pleasure Hides Your Needs sounds vastly different to MARTYRS, and I’ve no doubt it is because of the projects I tackled between the albums.”
The aesthetic direction of the photography, artwork and videography (created in combination with Vara Pappas) was an important element of the overall album concept. It also saw a subtle change in David’s creative process:
“I have always been very self-sufficient with the visual direction of my various projects, creating videos, graphics, and artwork under my HARUKO guise. The initial visual stylings of The Royal Ritual were created in mandatory self-isolation when I first moved back to England at the end of 2020.
“Fast forward to the spring of 2023, with Pleasure Hides Your Needs being on the way to some semblance of coherence, and Vara hinted at some ideas she might have for its visual styles. Initially I was sceptical about working with a visual artist, but once she started asking pointed questions about the meanings behind songs, my over-arching concepts for the album, and some of the visual styles I enjoy, I knew that she would be very thorough.
“I allowed myself to roll with it, and I am so glad I did. The TRR logo has been completely redesigned, the CD/digital and vinyl versions of the artwork are at once very different styles, but also in line with the themes of the album.
“Everything just feels more ‘complete’ and I’m very proud of how the album looks, as well as how it sounds.”
As well as heralding new music, 2024 will see The Royal Ritual make its way into the live arena, with a date at renowned UK alt-electronic festival Infest already announced for the August Bank Holiday in the UK, and a three-date UK tour lined up with labelmates Zeropolis and Sandi Glowe that same month.
Speaking of taking the project from the studio to the stage, David discloses, “The 2024 live dates for The Royal Ritual are flowing in nicely, and more are being added all the time. At the moment, The Royal Ritual operates as a duo on stage. I am joined by guitarist Dan Kentley, and he has been so vital in adapting how this music can be performed live.”
“It’s a very tech-heavy setup,” he continues. “I have spent hours upon hours creating sampler instruments out of the elements of each song, and mapping them out to different triggers (V-Drums, MIDI keyboards etc) so I can play as many of the parts live as possible. I have something of a semi-circle of equipment surrounding me on stage.”
“MIDI is key for the whole thing, since the same MIDI signals are being used to trigger programmed lighting (which will be used in appropriate venues).”
credits
releases May 24, 2024
All songs written, arranged, engineered, performed, programmed, and mixed by David Lawrie.
Mastered by Andy Wilson.
Photography, artwork, and design by Vara Pappas.
Produced by David Lawrie.
A truly original blend of haunting electronics and gothic drama mirroring the complex and unknowable nature of human emotions. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 30, 2023
French artist Feu Follet returns with a collection of hooky, synth-driven tracks that bubble & pop like the best ’80s new wave. Bandcamp New & Notable Jul 31, 2022
Wesley Eisold returns with his first Cold Cave effort in over a decade, filled to the brim with darkwave-y, club-ready murk. Bandcamp New & Notable Jun 16, 2021
Melbourne duo SaD craft dreamy goth pop with reverb-drenched guitars and pulsing bass, indebted to the dark dancefloors of the past. Bandcamp New & Notable Sep 30, 2020
The Detroit group fuse dark Americana with pulsing industrial electronics for a potent mix perfect for the goth club floor. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 26, 2019
