The Knocks & Skylar Spence Team Up For Supergroup Amelia Airhorn, Share First Single ‘Miracle’: Exclusive
New York has always been a magnet for creatives, but especially for those with a gritty, dream-chasing sensibility. Taking inspiration from their hometown, resident artists electronic duo The Knocks and nu-disco producer and vocalist Skylar Spence return under the guise of a new super group Amelia Airhorn, centered around a shared love of classic disco/soul, as well as sample-based music from electronic legends like The Avalanches, DJ Shadow, and Fatboy Slim.
Amelia Airhorn is the personification of this shared passion, epitomized through the group’s debut collaboration “Miracle,” premiering today exclusively via Billboard.
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The groove-driven track is accompanied by an animated visualizer depicting Amelia engaging with street performers, skateboarders and other city dwellers. The result is a fully immersive audio and visual experience, featuring hand-drawn collage visuals by artist Ida Chelengar that serve as a “gritty enchantment, a smooth psychedelic immersion.”
The trio first connected when Spence supported The Knocks on their Feel Good Feel Great North American headlining tour. Afterwards, they began working at The Knocks’ HeavyRoc Studio on the Lower East Side, mixing snippets of classic soul and disco with YouTube apocrypha and pieces of movie dialogue.
Of the project, the duo writes: “On a dark, glittering summer night in 1992, a girl named Amelia Airhorn stepped into New York City nightlife and never came out. She’s a living and breathing sample, slipping in and out of the hectic thrill of the city — kicked up high-tempo on flashbulbs and disco balls, easing back into the heartbeat of a crowd dancing in a basement and a couple making their way uptown at dawn. She’s everywhere if you know what to listen for, and on this experimental concept mixtape, NYC-based electronic duo The Knocks and nu-disco producer and vocalist Skylar Spence catch Amelia Airhorn’s silhouette.”
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