The Soft Pink Truth returns with joyful, anti-fascist dance album

On May 1, 2020, Drew Daniel returned The Soft Pink Truth to Thrill Jockey with Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase?, a record that folded deep dance music into classical minimalism, ambient house and post-classical textures. It was his first album under the name since 2015’s self-released Why Pay More?, and it sent him back to the label that had issued 2014’s Why Do The Heathen Rage?. Daniel, one half of Matmos, has credits including A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure and work on Björk’s Vespertine.

The Soft Pink Truth began as an outlet for material outside Matmos’ purview, including rave, black metal and crust punk influences. Daniel said Donald Trump’s election left him angry and sad, yet he did not want to make “angry white guy” music in a purely reactive mode. Instead, the record was conceived as a response to the rise of fascism, with a sound built to feel socially extended, affirming, joyful and grateful. Its title comes from Romans 6:1, the biblical question about whether to keep sinning so that grace may increase, and Daniel said the phrase fit both his creative practice and his view of how to live in the world.

Colin Self, Angel Deradoorian and Jana Hunter sang, while M.C. Schmidt and Koye Berry played piano. Sarah Hennies played vibraphone and percussion, and Andrew Bernstein of Horse Lords and John Berndt played saxophone. Daniel also used a Roland Space Echo tape unit borrowed from Mitchell Brown of GASP, a tool that gave the album its flickering, ethereal surface.

At 49, Daniel said, “I’m 49 years old and I’m a Shakespeare professor.”