Premiered on his Beats 1 radio show
Frank Ocean has returned with brand new music, in the form of woozy new track ‘DHL’, premiered on his Beats 1 radio show ‘blonded’.
The track is his first new material since last year’s standalone cover of crooner classic ‘Moon River’, his only music of 2018. You can take a listen below.
In addition to ‘DHL’, Ocean premiered more new material on the show, albeit in the form of Sango’s remix of a track called ‘Cayendo’.
The original version of that track, along with a track called ‘Dear April’, are currently available for pre-order as 7″ vinyl singles on Ocean’s website, along with videos of them being DJ’d in remix form at his New York club night.
Ocean’s forthcoming new album is being influenced by club music, and approaches themes of ‘strength and vulnerability’, the singer said in a rare recent interview.
His new club night PrEP+ held its inaugural event in New York earlier this week, with Justice arriving as surprise headliners.
The name is “an homage to what could have been of the 1980s’ NYC club scene if the drug PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) – which can be taken daily to prevent HIV/AIDs for those who are not infected but are at high risk – had been invented in that era.”
However the night did receive backlash from one of the night’s performers SXYLK, who says their set was cut short to make way for Justice.
“Justice was everything, but the party was lacking in actual queer underground DJs,” SXYLK said. “Brooklyn is becoming the new Portland and industry heavyweights should run in the opposite direction.”
Responding to criticism, as well as questions over the name, Ocean wrote a lengthy Tumblr post saying: “I decided to name, what was otherwise going to be a night of lights and music inspired by an era of clubbing that I loved PrEP+ because…I started to imagine in an era where so many lives were lost and so much promise was lost forever along with them, what would it have been like if something, anything had existed that in all probability would’ve saved thousands and thousands of lives.”
He continued: “I’m an artist, it’s core to my job to imagine realities that don’t necessarily exist and it’s a joy to.”
