Having recently been honored with two Grammy nominations for “Album of the Year” and “Record of the Year” working with Beyoncé, Cigar Cigarette, né Chris McLaughlin shows no signs of slowing down. This prolific producer/engineer has just released his debut EP, Natural History on August 4th. In honor of the release, Cigar Cigarette releases the single “Pantomime” ft Naeem (formally known as Spank Rock) today via Trash Casual Records.

“Pantomime” is a postmodern club anthem about living in an infinite loop, unanchored in time. It’s an absurdist meditation on the unkept promises of late stage capitalism, on going through the motions of life and playing house, like a sitcom with the sound muted. “It was inspired by a 5 A.M. ride on New York City’s E train,” explains Cigar Cigarette,. “I was looking at another passenger’s phone as they watched a sitcom that I couldn’t hear. People walked around the screen pretending to do things in their house, freezing in time while the canned laughter played out.” Featuring genre-bending artist Naeem, the track leads the listener through the hallways of a haunted spaceship onto a dance floor of tungsten-heavy synths, capturing the nihilistic exuberance of 90s acid house.

In addition to being a seminal artist in the 00s alternative hip hop and indie scenes, Naeem is a longtime friend of Cigar Cigarette. “Naeem and I met when I was cutting his vocal on a mutual friend’s record and we have been collaborating ever since,” McLaughlin explains. “Over the years we’ve worked on his albums, as well those of Fab[rizio Moretti] from The Strokes’ Machine Gum and a host of other artists that we met in 37d03d artist residencies in New York and Berlin, including Justin Vernon (Bon Iver). He’s been a major sounding board for my own work and I’ve always wanted him to perform on a Cigar Cigarette song.”

The video for “Pantomime,” directed by Delaney Schenker, is a lo-fi wonderland. “ I’ve been a really big fan of Delaney Schenker’s video art, use of vhs glitching and what he calls tracers for some time now,” McLaughlin explains. “Camryn Eakes’ avant-garde choreography and dance was the perfect place to begin building the dystopian motions of life that would become the foundation of the experimental visuals.”

McLaughlin has accrued more than a decade of impressive credits and accolades in his production and engineering career, working with major artists including Beyoncé (for which he was nominated for two Grammy Awards—Album of the Year and Record of the Year), Kanye West and the Sunday Service choir, Rihanna, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, Fabrizio Moretti of The Strokes, and Neon Indian. As his production and engineering career took off in the 2010s, a move to Brooklyn and the founding of his next studio venture, Deep Space Recording in Greenpoint, led to Cigar Cigarette’s genesis in 2017. Now, on his Natural History EP, he expands his cosmic sonic terrain and rich, transformative sound while maintaining his gritty, art punk flourishes. The result is equal parts distorted guitar amplifications and ominous synthesizer dramatics. With the release of “Pantomime” and the Natural History E.P., Cigar Cigarette is turning toward a heavier, yet more polished sound, one that showcases McLaughlin’s penchant for textural, beat-forward synthscapes alongside his memorable hooks and absurdist outlook. 

Photo Courtesy: Harry McNally