New York City-based Crumb announces ‘AMAMA,’ their third full-length album, slated for release on May 17th through Crumb Records. Crumb, the collaboration of half-Malaysian singer and multi-instrumentalist Lila Ramani, keyboardist, and saxophonist Bri Aronow, bassist Jesse Brotter, and drummer Jonathan Gilad, have come together again to create their most carefree and open-hearted endeavour to date, a showcase of poetic abstraction and confessional self-awareness that cuts deep. Alongside the album’s announcement, the band releases its title track, which serves as an upbeat and optimistic tribute to Ramani’s grandmother, beautifully weaving in elements of her Malaysian-Indian heritage.
Speaking about the album, lead single, and its video, Ramani shares: “’AMAMA’ is dedicated to my namesake, my grandmother, whose voice is sampled throughout the song. A video sent to me over WhatsApp of her singing originally inspired the melody and ethos of the song, from which I built its glitchy, warped foundation. It’s a love song! My partner and Crumb’s creative director [Abraham El Makawy] directed the video, which combines his family’s archival footage of the neighbourhood we grew up in, home videos from the band, as well as drawings from 702 fans who helped us animate the last part of the video. The song is the title track and spiritual centre of our new album.”
“AMAMA” exists at the crossroads of psychedelia, pop, jazz, and rock and cements Crumb as a band uniquely their own. The third album was produced alongside Johnscott Sanford and Jonathan Rado in Los Angeles and is an incandescent statement about searching for solid ground, connection, and clarity in a life of nomadic upheaval.
In 2023, Crumb released their single “Le Temple Volant” with Melody’s Echo Chamber, which received acclaim from Pitchfork, The FADER, Stereogum, and more. ‘AMAMA’ follows a cohesive line back through breakout EPs self-titled ‘Crumb’ and ‘Locket,’ 2019’s Jinx, and 2021’s ‘Ice Melt’, which Rolling Stone called “a captivating trek to the metaphysical and back down to Earth.”
Indonesia ranks #8 among their top 10 most streamed countries worldwide. Stay tuned for more new music releases from Crumb.
‘AMAMA’ Tracklist:
- From Outside A Window Sill
- Side By Side
- The Bug
- AMAMA
- Genie
- Crushxd
- Nightly News
- (Alone In) Brussels
- Sleep Talk
- Dust Bunny
- Swarmed
- XXX