James Acaster’s Temps collective launch debut album with new single

31 January, 2023

James Acaster

Temps, the international music collective put together and produced by comedian James Acaster, have announced their debut album.

The record is called ‘PARTY GATOR PURGATORY’ and is due to arrive on May 19 via Bella Union. The 40-strong collective’s track ‘no,no’, which was released at the end of last year, serves as the album’s lead single. As well as producing the album, Acaster drew the album artwork himself using three highlighter pens.

Per a press release, the album is named after a human-sized cuddly toy alligator wearing a t-shirt that read ‘PARTY GATOR’, which Acaster won at a county fair aged seven. He held onto it for decades before passing it on to some friends after failing to convince a girlfriend to keep hold of it when they moved in together.

Accompanying the album announcement is its second single, ‘bleedthemtoxins’. Its quirky music video sees Acaster dressed as the Party Gator and interacting with passers-by in and around London’s Victoria Park.

Check it out below:

The tracklist for ‘PARTY GATOR PURGATORY’ is as follows:

  1. ‘lookaliveandplaydead’
  2. ‘kept’
  3. ‘partygatorR.I.P’
  4. ‘no,no’
  5. ‘at(moves)’
  6. ‘partygatorpurgatory’
  7. ‘ificouldjust’
  8. ‘bleedthemtoxins’
  9. ‘partygatorresurrection’
  10. ‘slowreturn’

Temps, which Acaster has described as a “DIY Gorillaz” set-up, came about during the first COVID lockdown in Britain. Acaster had just finished a book and a podcast about music that featured several of his favourite musicians. According to a press release, Acaster still had all their email addresses so spent the next two years sending tracks back and forth between a variety of musicians, who were given free rein to do as they pleased.

“I became completely obsessed with this project,” Acaster said. “It was all I focused on for two years and we ended up making my favourite thing ever. I hope people enjoy it.”

Speaking to NME in 2020, Acaster revealed that the song that changed his life was Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’.

The post James Acaster’s Temps collective launch debut album with new single appeared first on NME.