Fact Mix 877: Himera

This week’s Fact mix, from producer Himera, is what falling in love on the internet sounds like, the overdriven, hyper saturated soundtrack to vaping in the club, k-holing in the bathroom and crying on the bus on the way home.

Earlier this month the Latvian-born, Amsterdam-based producer Himera released their debut album, Sharing Secrets, a heart-swelling, hair-raising, bliss-inducing statement of intent that throws wide open the doors onto a vital new world we had previously only caught glimpses of on their beloved 2020 EP, More Than Friends, their 2021 collaboration with partner-in-crime Petal Supply, ‘You Make It Look So Easy,’ as well as dewy-eyed remixes of the same track from Malibu and Mura Masa. Himera captures ecstatic rushes of intimacy and jubilation in full-bodied, hyperactive sound, transplanting the abstracted signifiers of trance, happy hardcore and extreme computer music, elements that the PC Music crew and associated artists have spent the best part of the last decade synthesising into what is now known as hyperpop, back onto more adventurous dance floors, both URL and IRL. This is what falling in love on the internet sounds like, the overdriven, hyper saturated soundtrack to vaping in the club, k-holing in the bathroom and crying on the bus on the way home.

What Sharing Secrets continues to prove is that, above all, Himera makes music about friendship. “Friendship, and the moments that come from it, is definitely my main source of inspiration for my music,” they recently told AQNB. “Be they the happiest moments or the most bittersweet ones, the best way for me to lock in these memories is to write little tunes about them.” From Hannah Diamond’s pining vocals on ‘Kiss’ and the rain-flecked memories of sharing an umbrella on the way back from a party that drive the bubblegum marching song of ‘Umbrella’ to the Shepard tone epiphanies of ‘Today, I Opened My Eyes’ and the heart breaking swell of ‘Good Night, I Hope The Future Brings You Only The Best!,’ Sharing Secrets issues forth in a language of optimism and affection, where having faith in your friends and being in love shines brilliant light on a more caring way of being in the world. “I just want someone to press the pause button on reality and go into this imaginary little world with me,” Himera concludes.

For their delirious Fact mix, Himera delivers a whiplash-inducing retrospective on the year leading up to Sharing Secrets, moving between unreleased originals and production variations, remixes of friends and heroes EASYFUN, A. G. Cook, Carly Rae Jepsen and Ariana Grande, as well as some more mysterious inclusions. “This is a mix of originals and remixes, mostly unreleased,” says Himera. “I wanted to compile a lot of the sounds and melodies that I’ve been working on for the past year or so, leading up to the completion of ‘Sharing Secrets’. It includes some extra Secrets that will slip out soon enough.”

You can find Himera on Instagram, Twitter and Bandcamp. Sharing Secrets is out now.

Tracklist:

Himera – ‘Giggle’
Himera – ‘Our Garden’
Himera – ‘Spellbound’
Himera – ‘You Make It Look So Easy’ (Squeeky VIP)
EASYFUN – ‘Audio’ (Himera Remix)
former hero – ‘Changing Tense’ x Himera – ‘I Mean Love’
Petal Supply – ‘1’ (Himera ReRemix)
Himera – ‘Anything For You’
A. G. Cook – ‘Stargon’ (Himera Bootleg)
? – ‘?’ (Himera Fragrance)
Carly Rae Jepsen – ‘Call Me Maybe’ (Himera’s Dancefloor Remix)
Ariana Grande – ‘One Last Time’ x Bloom OS – ‘?’
Unu & co2 – ‘Precious Words’ (Himera Remix)
Planet 1999 – ‘crush’ (Himera Rinse)
Himera – ‘Thrash’
Himera – ‘Bubblegum Interlude’
Bloom OS – ‘Always’ (Himera & Olipra’s Bonus Level)
Himera – ‘A Song I Heard in a Dream’