Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, Theophilus London Release First Single and Music Video from “Theo Impala” Collaboration

By Emma Korstanje  |  October 31, 2018 | 11:56am
Image via MyBeBeyRecords/YouTube
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Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, Theophilus London Release First Single and Music Video from “Theo Impala” Collaboration
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The duo informally named “Theo Impala,” Theophilus London and Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, have released the first single from their recent collaboration, a cover of Steve Monite’s 1984 “Only You,” along with an accompanying music video.

SINGLE + VIDEO ON ALL STREAMING SITES HALLOWEEN #ONLYYOU 10/31 @spotify @applemusic @tidal @amazon

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Parker and London first collaborated back in 2016 on “Whiplash” and have slowly released details about their latest pairing over the last few months. They first revealed the Monite cover during a sold-out show at West Hollywood’s Peppermint Club earlier this month, when the duo performed both the cover and an original song live for the first time. A few days later, a recorded version of the cover surfaced on Virgil Abloh’s Beats 1 Radio show, Televised Radio.

The cover itself is reminiscent of Monite’s original, taking the various pieces of the track and bringing them to the forefront just a bit more—heavier bass, stronger keys presence—giving it a generally fuller vibe than the original. Stripping back a ton of the ‘80s cheese-factor, they’ve kept the groove of the original while catapulting it into the 21st century.

The Frankie Latina-directed video contains grainy footage of the two performing the track, both staged for the video and from their live performance at The Peppermint Club. Aside from the performance shots, much of the video is a montage of images at times following the lyrics and others entirely random.

The collaboration is expected to feature on London’s forthcoming album BeBey, for which he hasn’t announced a release date yet. Though London has briefly mentioned a potential “Theo Impala” tour in the past, it hasn’t been confirmed by either party.

Check out the video and both artists’ Daytrotter Sessions below, and revisit Paste’s 2015 feature on Tame Impala here.

 
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