LABYRINTHITIS brims with mystic and intoxicating terrain, the threads of Dan Bejarsnotes woven through by allusions at once eerily familiar and intimately perplexing. Therecord circuitously draws ever inward, each turn offering giddy surprise, anxious esoterica,and thumping emotionality at equal odds. Do you remember the mythic beast? Bejar asksat the outset of Tintoretto, Its for You, the albums first single, casting torchlight overthe labyrinths corridors. Delivered in a Marlene Dietrich smolder, Bejars lyrical menaceseeps like smoke through the brazen marchs woozy synths and dizzied guitar. Theressome character here that feels new to me, a low drawl, an evening gown draped over apiano, Bejar says of the song. Throughout, LABYRINTHITIS insists that everythingsnot all right, but that even isolation and dissolution can be a source of joystepping intothe sunlight at the other end of the maze in your ear, Bejar strolling alongside like a wildmaned,
leisure-suited minotaur.

More than an arcane puzzle for the listener, LABYRINTHITIS warps and winds throughunfamiliar territory for Bejar as well. Written largely in 2020 and recorded the followingspring, the album most often finds Bejar and frequent collaborator John Collins seeking themythic artifacts buried somewhere under the dance floor, from the glitzy spiral of It Takesa Thief to the Books-ian collage bliss of the title track. Initial song ideas ventured forthfrom disco, Art of Noise, and New Order, Bejar and Collins championing the over-the-topmadcappery. John is in his 50s, and Im almost there, but we used to go to clubs, Bejarlaughs. Our version may have been punk clubs, but our touchstones for the album weremore true to disco.

Bejar and Collins conducted their questing in the height of isolation, Collins on theremote Galiano Island and Bejar in nearby Vancouver, sending ideas back and forthwhen restrictions didnt allow them to meet. From the vocal manipulation to the layeredelectronics, making this record pushed us to a new place, and reaching that place feltstressful, Bejar recalls. But I trust that that stress is a good feeling. That cuddly anxietyexcels in tracks like Eat the Wine, Drink the Bread.

Lyrically, LABYRINTHITIS embraces a widescreen maximalism, blocks of text dottedwith subversions and hedges. Building from the koans of Have We Met, Bejar continuesto carve his words precisely, toying with expectations and staid symbols, while Collinsproduction reconstructs the pieces into a unified whole. Even though everyone recordedin their own isolated corners, this is the most band record that weve done in the last fewyears, Bejar says. Everythings manipulated, but the band is really present, and our planswound up betrayed by what the tracks wanted. Ive written 300, 400 songs in my adultlifeI dont know how to do anything elsebut this album feels like a breakthrough intonew territory.

That unprepared synchronicity and mutual discovery shines on June, a six-and-a-halfminutetrack that features a blend of funk bass, fluttering synth, and charred poetryrecitation. While Bejar initially envisioned LABYRINTHITIS as a straight dance record(just like Donna Summers greatest hits), the end of June explodes that simplicity intoa million shining pieces, finding joy in mutual discovery instead of isolated certainty.LABYRINTHITIS closes on The Last Song, Bejar singing and strumming all alone, agentle yet no more settled exodus out of the fractured dance party. I try and sneak insweet moments where I can, Bejar laughs. As LABYRINTHITIS closes, the reorientingvertigo lingers, its implacable aura and bewitching lyrics wriggling ever deeper into themind.

Tracklist:

1. Its in Your Heart Now
2. Suffer
3. June
4. All My Pretty Dresses
5. Tintoretto, Its for You
6. Labyrinthitis
7. Eat the Wine, Drink the Bread
8. It Takes a Thief
9. The States
10. The Last Song

UPC: 673855078915
Label: Merge Records
Release Date: 3.25.22
Format: Vinyl