Kevin Bronson on March 30th, 2020

0

Since his last album — the wide-ranging 2017 compilation of EP and single releases “Savage Times” — Hanni El Khatib has had his share of thrills and spills.

The singer-songwriter, graphic artist and co-founder of Innovative Leisure Records has stayed busy musically, collaborating with Frank Leone, De Lux and Rudy De Anda and producing Pinky Pinky’s debut album “Turkey Dinner,” in addition to working on his own music. Oh, and he almost died.

The man who once called his tunes “knife fight music” was in a serious car accident last April. “Our vehicle was rear-ended at high speed, leaving the car crumpled up and flipped over,” he says. “Miraculously, we made it out alive, It was definitely a close call. Even the paramedics and police officers on site were in shock that we were all standing there, given the severity of the crash. The whole experience gave me some some much needed perspective on life.”

That experience is captured in the exuberant vibe of El Khatib’s new single “Alive,” which arrived Friday with the news that his fifth full-length, “Flight,” would be out May 15 via Innovative Leisure.

El Khatib has long since spread his wings from the bluesy garage-rock he made at the start of his career a decade ago, but “Flight” figures to mark his most drastic departure yet. A treacly synth flutters over the deep groove of the new single, with the singer proclaiming “I can’t believe I survived.” The single that preceded it in February, “Stressy,” gets typically gritty, but in a different way — and that’s even before the hallucinatory breakdown a minute and a half in.

The germination of the album followed a period of personal turmoil for Khatib, who was burned out and stepped away from music for a time after his 2017 album, making some lifestyle changes that included quitting drinking. Eventually, sessions with Leon Michels (of the El Michels Affair), whose production credits include Lana Del Rey, Travis Scott, A$AP Rocky, Eminem, Chicano Batman, Lee Fields and the Arcs, took El Khatib in another direction.

Daniel Pappas directed the videos for “Alive” and “Stressy” — with stuntman Troy Christopher taking the tumble in the former.

||| Watch: The videos for “Alive” and “Stressy”