With “Let Go”, Tanoki and Farah Elle team up to comment on technology’s place in our lives

Following the glitchy trip hop of “Loading”, Kilkenny producer and visual artist Tanoki (Paul Mahon) returns with “Let Go”, the second single from his upcoming debut album File New.

Recorded and produced in Tanoki’s home studio in Kilkenny, and co-written with Farah Elle (who also featured and co-wrote “Loading”), “Let Go” retains much of the glichiness of its preceding single.

Unlike “Loading”, “Let Go” envelops the listener in a new yet familiar musical sheen, making the track feel much more intricate in its instrumental structure and construction, moving between Farah vocals backed by the piano and skittering beats, to a mix of chimy piano lines and horns which flourish like a fanfare.

Farah’s vocal delivery is more understated when compared to “Loading”, and sounds much less manipulated. However, her voice has a soft allure which has a charm of its own.

While these elements featured on “Loading”, they sound more refined and focused here by comparison, helped in no small part by the vocal samples from science-fiction franchise The Twilight Zone.

“Let Go” also is a thematic continuation of “Loading”, with Farah’s lyrics pondering about the world both around us and inside us, asking what is real and what is imaginary. Farah herself describes the track as:

“More than [a] coming of age, [“Let Go”] is when you suddenly decide you want to live a life that's aligned with your values and what you believe in, based on what you see in the world.”

Tanoki also provides a trippy psychedelic video to accompany the music, which skews the ordinary landscapes in numerous effects, further emphasising his message about the relationship we all have between realism and artifice. Tanoki spoke on his fascination with technology, and how it relates to his work:

“I love the idea of using technology to explore how different I can make the normal world around us look, in a way tapping into what AI and robots of the future are going to be making of our surroundings.”

Tanoki previously worked on his music and visual projects as Geppetto (after which his home studio is named), and has collaborated in a video editing capacity alongside acts such as Linkin Park and Walking for Cars.

File New is expected to be released later this year.