La Force: one-off London date for Canadian star n/w [12 Sept]

Premiering via The Fader, this brand-new offering is “a swan song to a dead a man”, where La Force questions love beyond the grave. “How do you continue to give and receive love when the person you love is dead?” wonders La Force. “It’s about loving into a void. It’s about loving and communing the spirit of a dead atheist who didn’t believe in spirit.”

“how do you love a man” follows the release of the two first singles that garnered warm reviews from fans and critics alike. About “condition of us”. CBC Music stated: “Engle’s voice, wise and warm, envelopes the track, [..] Her words wrap around the music in odd ways at times, like a stream of consciousness versus melody, but the love that’s beaming from Engle is undeniable,” Clash Magazine added it is: “the sound of an artist moving deliberately towards evolution”, whilst Guy Garvey (Elbow) at BBC6 Music said it felt “accomplished, passionate and slick.” The song was also praised by Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan and more. “october” was acclaimed by NYLON Magazine stating: “over nimbly plucked guitar and jazzy horns, her rich voice sounds like pulling over an old knit sweater as she sings about watching the cyclical decay of animals and plants”.

The video for “how do you love a man” is directed by Ali Vanderkruyk, Engle herself and Caely White. Inspired by early video art, this video explores a desire to change shape in order to commune with a spirit that is no longer embodied. How can the living continue to love the dead? What does it mean to love into the void?

La Force has also just announced a headline show in London, UK at the Slaughtered Lamb on September 12. Tickets are on sale now.

‘XO SKELETON’ is the supple, steady, uncanny new album by La Force: a mixture of haunted pop and hot-blooded R&B that glistens at the meeting point between life, death, and love. The album was coproduced by La Force and Warren Spicer (Plants and Animals). “The theme of the album revealed itself in the making,” she explains, recalling how the title track is rooted in a telephone call with her life-insurance broker—one everyday banality on the periphery of death. “At one point she said, ‘God forbid you should die.’ I was gobsmacked. ‘Well, there’s one thing guaranteed: no god or goddess is going to keep me alive.’” 

Born and based in Montreal, La Force made her electrifying studio debut on Broken Social Scene 2017’s ‘Hug of Thunder’. The following year, Engle released ‘La Force’, garnering a Polaris Music Prize long-list nomination and drawing attention from Stereogum, the Globe & Mail, and NPR’s “Morning Becomes Electric,” as well as The National’s Aaron Dessner, who recruited Engle to appear on the new Big Red Machine LP alongside Bon Iver, Taylor Swift, Fleet Foxes and Sharon Van Etten. Engle was also invited to contribute to the recent album by Patrick Watson, who used their collaboration as the lead single on 2022’s ‘Better In The Shade’. Engle recently released a critically acclaimed (★★★★ – MOJO) album part of ALL HANDS_MAKE LIGHT, Engle’s drone/modular synth/voice team-up with Godspeed You! Black Emperor founder Efrim Manuel Menuck. Engle has appeared on stage with the likes of Maggie Rogers, Martha Wainwright, Leif Vollebekk, The Barr Brothers and more.

12/09/23 – London, UK, Slaughtered Lamb