New York City-based musician/producer Yuno is sharing details for Blest, his forthcoming debut album, out Friday, May 16th, 2025 worldwide from Sub Pop.
 
You can now watch the official video for “Blest,” the album’s ebullient title track, directed by and starring Yuno. He says of the visual, “I turned my entire home recording studio into a giant blue screen to make this video. I hope people in my building don’t get concerned about my storage unit filled with 1800 square feet of blue fabric and a 5-foot tall rose.”
 
All songs on Blest were written and performed by Yuno, co-produced by Yuno and Frank Corr, who also contributed keyboards, drums, and guitar throughout the record. The album also features additional production and instrumentation by Patrick Wimberly (“True,” “Massive”) at The CRC in Brooklyn, and Nick Sanborn at Betty’s in Durham, NC (“True”). Blest was mixed by Steve Vealey and mastered by Joe La Porta.
 
Blest is available to preorder on CD/LP/All DSPs from Sub Pop. LP preorders from megamart.subpop.com (North America), MM2 (in UK/EU), your local record store and at Yuno’s future live shows will receive the limited Loser edition on White vinyl (Limited LP colors whilst stock lasts!).
 
Late last month, Yuno released another Blest highlight  “True,” a sweet track that marries trap and dream pop. It marked the first new material since the release of “Somebody,” his standalone single from 2021, and the 2018 EP, Moodie, which features his breakout single ”No Going Back.”
 
Yuno will also appear at the 2025 NonCommvention in Philadelphia on Tuesday, May 6th, 2025.

Yuno’s full-length debut, Blest, finds the enigmatic indie-pop visionary transforming the emo-tinged suburban malaise of his 2018 Moodie EP into more expansive, widescreen pop drama — suited for big moves and bigger stages. The kaleidoscopic sound he devised as a millennial hermit in his childhood bedroom in Florida has since broadened his horizons, taking him on tour with Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Superorganism, and soundtracking various series for Netflix and HBO. Imbued with elements of dream-pop, rock, trap, and psychedelia, his eclectic songs serve as bids for love and connection, which especially in the fractured era of social media, have resonated with many listeners who find solace in his vulnerability.
 
Yuno Moodie was born in New York to Jamaican parents from the U.K., and grew up in the coastal Southern city of Jacksonville, Florida. Raised on a sonic diet of reggae and hip-hop records — his father’s copy of 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’ was on regular rotation in the family car throughout the 2000s — Yuno’s musical tastes began to diverge after his grandfather gifted him a skateboard that he found in a garbage can. Eventually, and unexpectedly, Yuno’s new hobby would dovetail with a future career in music.
 
“The first time I ever got on a skateboard, I broke my foot,” he recalls. It was while he was on the mend that he fully immersed himself in video games like Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater,  famous gateways for many young punks of the millennial generation. As he studied skate videos to build on his athletic technique, he also cultivated a sixth sense as a composer and overall curator of vibes. “I’m always visualizing things when I’m making music and that helps me complete the full picture,” says Yuno. “To this day I’m like, ‘What does it need to make it fit in a skate video?’”
 
Having taught himself the bass and guitar at home, his early material began as impressions of harder bands like HIM, Rancid, and AFI; later, he would embrace anti-folk heroes like the Moldy Peaches and Daniel Johnston. With the advent of the social media predecessor Myspace, Yuno began discovering more eclectic local Jacksonville acts, like indie-pop darlings Black Kids — who offered a more diverse look and eclectic sound for the Bold City, which had then been defined by white radio rockers like Limp Bizkit, Yellowcard, and Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. “Seeing Black Kids’ success showed me more of what I could do,” says Yuno.
 
In time, Yuno taught himself to produce on his laptop, and filled his childhood bedroom with instruments to cultivate a more full-bodied sound, in which he married crunching pop-punk riffs with glimmers of synth strings  Yuno uploaded his ballads of teenage longing to Soundcloud, where they began to catch fire within the indie blogosphere — and by 2014, caught the attention of Shabazz Palaces emcee and Sub Pop A&R representative Ishmael Butler. At that time, Yuno had never performed a live show, and could count the number of concerts he’d been to on one hand.
 
“He DMed me for new music, but I didn’t have anything to bring him,” recalls Yuno. “A year or so later, he came back and asked, ”Do you mind if I share your music with Sub Pop?’ Apparently, they liked it, and I flew out to Seattle to meet everybody.”

That visit resulted in a record deal with Sub Pop and eventually, his 2018 debut EP, Moodie. The record’s evocative, yearning hooks and cinematic ambience made a suitable soundtrack for film and TV. His surfy pop track “Sunlight,” a summer sketch he revitalized from 2012, was featured in an episode of the Netflix series Atypical; and the gossamer melancholy of “Fall in Love” made for a haunting needle drop in comedian Ramy Youssef’s HBO special, Feelings.

By this time, Yuno had moved back to his birthplace of New York City and settled in Bushwick — just before the Covid-19 pandemic had threatened to stall his music career, along with the world. Sequestered at home once more, like the monastic days of his youth, Yuno began piecing together his foundation for Blest. “For the first time in my life, I was social, going to shows, and meeting new people,” says Yuno. “Then I had to kind of go back and revert to just being in my bedroom all day. It was strange, but I was used to it!”

As the pandemic eased, Yuno welcomed collaborators like Nick Sanborn of Sylvan Esso and Patrick Wimberly of Chairlift, the latter who lends his sparkle to the fuzz-rock saunter of Blest track, “Massive” — “The bane of staying young is gettin’ older,” sings Yuno, speaking to the all-too precious resource that is time. Co-producer Frank Corr, the NYC artist who performs as Morning Silk, introduced an array of vintage synthesizers to the musician.

Yuno’s superpower lies in the way he mines a multitude of genres for their pop potential and surfaces with a tapestry that feels novel and fresh. Take, for instance, “Blest,” the immediate, blissful, and bright title track, which is inspired by Rich Harrison-breakbeats and Neptunes-esque jangle. Or the breezy single, “True,” which he began writing at producer Sanborn’s Betty’s in Durham, NC, Yuno moderates a lover’s quarrel with slick, trap percussions. Amid the breakbeated dream-rock of “Gimme Ocean,” he introduces his guitar solo with a searing emo scream, run through an EarthQuaker Devices pedal. Don’t let his sanguine aura or his sherbet pink wardrobe fool you; he can shred as hard as he wants to when he wants to.

Yuno
Blest
 
Tracklisting:
1. Blest
2. We Belong
3. Massive
4. Unfair
5. Perfect Pear
6. Fall Apart
7. Worst of Times
8. True
9. Gimme Ocean
10. Blitz!

Acclaimed TV On The Radio frontman and multi-hyphenate talent Tunde Adebimpe has released a new song “God Knows,” from his highly anticipated debut solo album, Thee Black Boltz. The album is set to be released on April 18th via Sub Pop Records. 

“God Knows” delves into the complexities of a bittersweet breakup, showcasing Adebimpe’s distinctive vocals and introspective lyrics. The song captures the raw vulnerability of heartbreak as Adebimpe sings, “You’re the worst thing I ever loved, And you’re bad news but I still want to give you my love.”

Of the latest single, the TV on the Radio frontman says  “Breaking up is hard to down dooby doo down do”. 

LISTEN TO “GOD KNOWS HERE

Tunde Adebimpe has also announced an intimate record release show at Los Angeles’ Zebulon on Thursday, April 17. Tickets are on sale now and are available HERE. 

This announcement comes on the heels of the vivid and introspective “Drop” earlier this year and last year’s lead single “Magnetic”.  Thee Black Boltz is produced by Tunde Adebimpe & Wilder Zoby, and executive produced by Zoby, with additional production and contributions from Jaleel Bunton & Jahphet Landis (of TV on the Radio), and more. Showcasing visionary soundscapes, the album is a nod to Adebimpe’s propensity to write and sing about the human condition – in all its forms, under all its stressors, both big and small. Pre-order the record HERE.

“…Adebimpe is strutting back into the spotlight with style.” - Consequence 

“Adebimpe is plagued with the state of the world, as he muses on the human race, love, tenderness and how to fly above it all. He whistles, claps and yelps—in all the ways that made TV On The Radio songs so compelling and mesmeric—but with a progressive voice that sounds fresh and thrilling in 2024.” - Paste

“‘’Magnetic’… It’s an apt name for the track, which opens with a reflective, melancholic lyric (‘I was thinking about my time in space’) before the propulsive instrumentals drop in and never let up.” - AV Club

“Tunde Adebimpe had quite the 2024, stealing scenes in Twisters and reuniting with TV on the Radio to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their debut, Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes. The front man will get a little more “me” time this year with his first solo album via Sub Pop.” - Vulture’s “Albums We Can’t Wait to Hear in 2025”

Watch Video For “Drop” HERE 

Watch Video for “Magnetic” HERE

Thee Black Boltz is not a TV On The Radio album. But in a lot of ways, the excitement of doing something on his own for the first time ignited a similar spark in him as during the early TV On The Radio days. The songwriting process is the same, he says, but with his TVOTR bandmates, Adebimpe knows he doesn’t always have to complete his ideas. “I’ve been doing this thing with this group of people for so long, that I can just have a vague sketch of a concept and I know Jaleel or Kyp will have five brilliant ideas on where it can go,” he says. “But for Thee Black Boltz, I didn’t have that scaffolding to hang on. That was both terrifying and exhilarating.”

At the heart of the album is its title. It is his response to the macro unease of a post-pandemic world careening towards violent authoritarianism and the personal grief that has come from loss in recent years, specifically the sudden passing of his younger sister while making it. Thee Black Boltz is Adebimpe’s desperate grasping of small moments of joy amidst the dissonance and sadness, any way he can. Making this album, he says, was his way of processing everything: “It was my way of building a rock or a platform for myself in the middle of this fucking ocean.”

And thus, Thee Black Boltz. As he writes in his notebook, “The sparks of inspiration/motivation / hope that flash up in the midst of (and sometimes as a result of) deep grief, depression or despair. Sort of like electrons building up in storm clouds clashing until they fire off lightning and illuminate a way out, if only for a second.”

“Also,” he adds. “it’s a good name for a cool metal band, and I think that most people would describe me as akin to a very cool metal band.” 

 1. Thee Black Boltz

 2. Magnetic

 3. Ate The Moon

 4. Pinstack

 5. Drop

 6. ILY

 7. The Most

 8. God Knows

 9. Blue

10. Somebody New

11. Streetlight Nuevo