Hermitude and Pell Put in Overtime to Bring You "Ukiyo," a Breezy New Song to Play Your Crush

Hermitude and Pell backstage at Lollapalooza / Photo by Randal Glaser, courtesy of Hermitude

Electronic duo Hermitude are a big deal in their native Australia: Their 2012 album Hyperparadise went platinum in Australia and won the Australian Music Prize, and this year's Dark Night Sweet Light debuted at number one on the ARIA charts. Here in America, where we take a way stance on anything Australian ever since we found out Bloomin' Onions aren't really Australian and Foster's isn't even that popular of an Australian beer, they're still making inroads, but that may be about to change.

After playing across the US this summer, including festival dates at Lollapalooza and HARD, Hermitude are getting ready to release Dark Night Sweet Light in America, and, to capture the interest of their Yankee pals, they've enlisted a couple US rappers, Big K.R.I.T. and Pell, for bonus tracks. The latter has been steadily picking up acclaim in the last couple of years for his sing-song delivery and open-minded collaborations with electronic producers. He shines on his contribution, "Ukiyo," which we're excited to premiere below. Comparing a relationship to a job where he's willing to put in overtime and all kinds of sweet foods, his sing-song bars are touching—cheesy in the way that kind of sounds infuriating if you're not feeling the relationship vibe but that sounds great if you're, like, making a mix for someone you're into (i.e. "just know I'll never ask you for a day off / ever since your love became my day job"). He turns out to be a perfect match for Hermitude's easy-going production.

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"You never quite know how a session is going to go when you jump in the studio with an artist you've never met before," Hermitude said about the collaboration over email. "It's a little like a blind date, but straight away we could tell that session with Pell was going to be a lot of fun. He's a super easy going, rad dude and talented to match so it all flew by in a blur of laughs raps and smoke."

Dark Night Sweet Light, which was inspired by the LA beat scene based around artists like Flying Lotus, is out August 28 in the US. Pell, who just released his new single "Vanilla Sky," has also announced that he has a new, as-yet-unnamed project on the way. Check out "Ukiyo" below:

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