This week’s Fact mix, from producer Himera, is what it’s like to fall in love on the internet, the overdriven and overdriven soundtrack for vaping in the club, k-holing in the bathroom and crying on the bus on the way back.
Earlier this month, Amsterdam-based Latvian-born producer Himera released his debut album, Sharing Secrets, an inflating, hair-raising and mind-blowing statement of intent that opens wide the doors to a vital new world we had previously. only glimpsed on their beloved 2020 EP More Than Friends, their 2021 collab with partner-in-crime Petal Supply, “You Make It Look So Easy,” plus rosy-eyed remixes of the same Malibu track and Mura Massa. Himera captures ecstatic spurts of intimacy and jubilation in full-bodied, hyperactive sound, transplanting the abstract signifiers of trance, happy hardcore and extreme computer music, elements that the PC Music team and associated artists have spent most of the last decade synthesizing into what is now known as hyperpop, back to more adventurous dance tracks, both URL and IRL. This is what falling in love on the internet sounds like, the overdriven, overdriven soundtrack of vaping in the club, k-holing in the bathroom, and crying on the bus on the way home.
What Sharing Secrets continues to prove is that first and foremost, Himera makes music about friendship. “Friendship and the moments that flow from it are definitely my main source of inspiration for my music,” they recently told the AQNB. “Whether it’s the happiest times or the bittersweet, the best way for me to lock up those memories is to write little songs about them.” From Hannah Diamond’s languid vocals on “Kiss” and the rain-splattered memories of sharing an umbrella on the way home from a party that drive the bubblegum marching song of “Umbrella” to your Shepard’s epiphanies of “Today , I Opened My Eyes” and the heartbreaking swell of “Goodnight, I hope the future brings you nothing but the best!”, Sharing Secrets unfolds in the language of optimism and affection, where to trust in friends and being in love highlights a more caring way of being in the world. “I just want someone to hit the pause button on reality and step into this little fantasy world with me,” Himera concludes.
For their delirious medley of facts, Himera deliver a stunning retrospective on the year leading up to Sharing Secrets, swinging between never-before-seen originals and production variations, remixes of friends and heroes EASYFUN, AG Cook, Carly Rae Jepsen and Ariana Grande, plus some more mysterious inclusions. “It’s a mix of originals and remixes, mostly unreleased,” says Himera. “I wanted to compile a lot of the sounds and melodies I’ve been working on over the past year or so, leading up to the completion of ‘Sharing Secrets’. It includes additional secrets that will be revealed soon enough.
You can find Himera on Instagram, Twitter and Band Camp. Sharing Secrets is now available.
List of tracks:
Himera – ‘Giggle’
Himera – ‘Our Garden’
Himera – ‘Bewitched’
Himera – ‘You Make It So Easy’ (Squeeky VIP)
EASYFUN – ‘Audio’ (Himera Remix)
former hero – ‘Changing Tense’ X Himera – “I mean love”
Supply of Petals – ‘1’ (Himera Remix)
Himera – “All For You”
A. G. Cook – ‘Stargon’ (Himera Bootleg)
? – ‘?’ (Himera Perfume)
Carly Rae Jepsen – ‘Call Me Maybe’ (Himera’s Dancefloor Remix)
Ariana Grande – “One Last Time” X BloomOS – ‘?’
Unu & co2 – ‘Precious Words’ (Himera Remix)
Planet 1999 – ‘Crush’ (Himera Rinse)
Himera – ‘Thrash’
Himera – ‘Bubblegum Interlude’
Bloom OS – “Always” (bonus level from Himera & Olipra)
Himera – “A Song I Heard in a Dream”
Then listen: Fact Mix 876 – Snufkin
