Fotocrime Crashes Into 2020 with New Album "South Of Heaven"

Equal parts heathen and heaven, Fotocrime’s new album is summoned from a darkness that lives all around us, deep within us. Fotocrime not only survives, but thrives in the shadows—beneath a heaviness that cannot be escaped, within melodies that defy light and dark. With South Of Heaven, the second full-length chapter in the project’s narrative, Fotocrime has found comfort on the fringe.

"This is a record for late night drives, a soundtrack for headlights illuminating the horizon,” R., the singer, songwriter, musician, and producer behind Fotocrime,says. “I’ll make music until the end of my days, with or without a listener, but I’m happy to have a passenger for the ride into the dark."

The drive begins on Side A, where South Of Heaven hits like a hammer at one moment and soothes like a hand on the shoulder the next. The third track (and first single), Love Is A Devil, swims in the open wounds and spilled blood of heartbreak. No matter the subject matter, R. sings with a conviction that is dire, leaving no doubt that exorcising these demons is not just artistic martyrdom—it is a biological imperative.

Watch share the stark, black-and-white visualizer for Love Is A Devil right here on YouTube:

South Of Heaven is the backlit highway slithering from 2018’s debut full-length Principle Of Pain, and the stories comprising South Of Heaven are winding and boundless, unfolding with unexpected paths and hairpin turns. Touching the myths of Saturn and Phaethon and mining the lives of Bruno Ganz and Francis Bacon, South Of Heaven carves a landscape that spans both earthly and astral planes.

And while Fotocrime is a distillation and dilation of R.’s own life, he doesn’t wander the road entirely alone. Pervading South Of Heaven’s ten tracks is the spirit of producer and primary engineer J. Robbins (Jawbox), who brings both detail and gusto to the album mix, from sessions recorded by Steve Albini (Shellac) at Electrical Audio in Chicago, Simon Small in London, and Robbins in Baltimore. The album features an arsenal of guests including Hayden Menzies (Metz), Janet Morgan (Channels), Nick Thieneman (Young Widows), Erik Denno (Kerosene 454), and Rob Moran (Unbroken) bringing the instrumental artillery.

"It’s been a journey of persistence and obsession, more character actor than leading man,” R. says. South Of Heaven is deeply personal, an honest fiction, an exposed nerve pulsing in a blanket of fog."

South Of Heaven Tracklist

1. Invisible

2. Foto On Wire

3. Love Is A Devil

4. Up Above the World

5. Hold Me in the Night

6. Never Fall Out of Love

7. Expulsion from Paradise

8. Blue Smoke

9. Chaos & Cosmos

10. Tough Skin

Fotocrime on US/ CA Tour

• MAR 5 San Luis Potosí MX 7 Barrios
• MAR 6 Morelia MX Cactux Bar
• MAR 7 Mexico City MX Centro De Salud
• MAR 13 San Diego CA Whistle Stop
• MAR 14 Los Angeles CA 5 Star Bar *
• MAR 15 Oakland CA Elbo Room JL *
• MAR 18 Portland OR High Water Mark
• MAR 19 Seattle WA El Corazon
• MAR 27 Louisville KY Zanzabar
• MAR 28 Birmingham AL Firehouse
• MAR 29 Atlanta GA 529
• MAR 30 Raleigh NC Slim's
• MAR 31 Richmond VA Fallout
• APR 01 Baltimore MD Metro Gallery
• APR 02 Brooklyn NY Gold Sounds
• APR 03 Manhattan NY Mercury Lounge
• APR 04 Boston MA O’Brien's
• APR 05 Quebec City QC L’Anti
• APR 06 Montreal QC Casa Del Popolo
• APR 07 Ottawa ON Cafe Deckuf
• APR 08 Toronto ON Bovine Sex Club
• APR 11 Chicago IL Subterranean Downstairs

w/ HIDE

* w/ Primary

w/ Fool’s Ghost