Blush, Lost Outrider’s highly anticipated fourth album is due out this Friday 7 August. The lead single Digital Cocaine has already been featured on NewRetroWave, one of the world’s most subscribed YouTube music channels. The UK trio consisting of Nathan Michael, Jordan Samuel and John Matteo have unleashed a supercharged ten-track package which showcases the band’s strength in blending modern electronic music, J-rock, retro-tinged synthwave and cyberpunk aesthetics.
The band’s chief producer Nathan Michael explains: “This particular album is one which we feel captures the vibe, aesthetic and overall sound we’ve been aiming for, for a long time. We’ve always been about collaborating with friends and this LP is no different, so everything from the artwork to the writing process has been organic and at our own pace, meaning the finished product feels right and without compromise.” Lost Outrider have collaborated with the vocalist Jordan Samuel on the previous record as well as in the live environment, but this is the first time he appears across the track listing, as Michael continues, “We recruited Jordan as a main vocalist and co-songwriter at the beginning of 2020, so this has meant there’s been a prominent voice throughout the record. Because of this, we feel Blush is the first Lost Outrider record to have a uniform sound and feel. Lyric-wise, it is our most personal, too. A lot has changed for each member in the past couple years and this has come out in the music. We hope people can listen to the songs and relate.”
NewRetroWave called them one of the Top 10 Newcomers to watch out for in 2018. 2019 saw the group step outside the bounds of simply being recording artists by composing the critically acclaimed soundtrack for the indie horror short Crybaby Bridge: A Louisiana Urban Legend. The respected horror-based media outlet, Dread Entertainment, praised the score.
Blush includes a collaboration with Sidewalks and Skeletons, a prolific UK dark wave project that fuses horror culture with electronic music production. Also collaborating are NewRetroWave-signed synthwave act Wolf Club, as well as features from Dan Gorman, Kristofer Strandberg and long-time collaborator Anita Kyoda. The album is presented digitally and physically on a dark green marbled vinyl LP, CD Digipak and Cassette with artwork by Tim Sinfield.
