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‘The Humans will destroy us’ by Le Carousel, a side project of electronic music producer ,DJ and film composer Phil Kieran, is out on the 27th February 2026 on Phil Kieran Recordings (PKR). Le Carousel is Phil Kieran in soft focus serving dance-able music that drifts between the club and the cosmos.
There’s an intentional cinematic progression through the album. It opens with radio friendly avant-pop tracks Light the Flare and The Good One whose sparkling synths, gauzy vocals and hypnotic languid beats are reminiscent of Andrew Weatherall remixes of Primal Scream. At the heart of the record sits “We’re All Gonna Hurt,” a slow-burning standout that captures the essence of the project: soft edges against hard truths, rhythm as catharsis. It’s Hardway Bros remix is due for release on 14th November with other tracks earmarked for remixes by Curses and David Holmes. The album transcends into deeper beats that don’t so much drive as breathe movement onto dancefloors- a Kosmische affair conjuring the spirit of acts like NEU! while ‘You’re killing me inside’ slow dances us to a cliffhanger.
There’s a quiet ache pulsing throughout this album combined with a grounded euphoria and hope. It’s the kind of music that feels like its built for life’s closing moments, or for new beginnings, whether that be on a sweaty dancefloor, a wistful journey home or for liminal living room listening.
Phil Kieran’s fingerprints are all over this, evidence of the varied projects and guises the DJ, producer and composer for film has been involved in during the twelve years it took to create this album.
There’s also DNA traces of Kraftwerk or Jon Hopkins’ Immunity era in its patient builds and fragile optimism, the watery tech-pop of current Haai, the hypnotic groove of Gorgio Moroder, echoes of the production values of Conny Plank, the grit of My Bloody Valentine maybe even a bit of Daniel Avery’s Logic melancholically refracted through a post-conflict Belfast lens.
Phil says the concept is exactly as it says on the tin – The Human’s will destroy us.
‘This was always a concept album – artists or their PRs often invent the concept after the music’s already been made. I wanted this to be a purposeful meditation on human nature.’
Kieran describes scrapping entire versions of the album, writing five different iterations before finding the one that felt right. Each new direction splintered into side projects, experiments, and reimagining’s that warranted months of work in their own right. “It felt like a petri dish,” Phil says, “where I was growing ideas that evolved into a new life form. Some became the 2019 Phil Kieran album ‘Lifecycling’ whereas other compositions Phil made for soundtracks on The Humans will destroy us and will appear on upcoming feature films- Crazy Love (2026) and Housejackers (2026) and immersive film Underscore (2026).
The name Le Carousel came from Kieran’s fascination with how human beings “sleepwalk into terrible things, sometimes in the name of progress” — the endless cycles of destruction and renewal, empathy and neglect, the strange beauty of our human flaws and our innate resilience. “We don’t need aliens to come down and exterminate us,” he says. “We’re doing a fine job ourselves.” Yet beneath the darkness runs a quiet current of hope — an urge to find meaning and connection in the chaos.
‘I wanted there to be a narrative about humankind’s propensity for self-destruction, whether that’s mass destruction of the planet, or our individual ability to create heaven or hell depending on our thoughts. I also wanted the music to give a sense of solace — some kind of salve to the madness around us. Otherwise what’s the point? ‘
Essentially, ‘The Humans will Destroy us’ is electronic music that has retained its humanity. Phil Kieran is bowing out now, saying ‘It’s taken 12 years to create this. I don’t plan to record as Le Carousel again. I’m happy this record, I’m done!”
Tracklist
THE HUMANS WILL DESTROY US
1 – Light The Flare
2 – Everyone is Gone
3 – The Good One
4 – Destroy Us
5 – We’re All Gonna Hurt
6 – Echo Spiegel
7- Parabolic
8 – Rough Ending
9 – Goodbye My Friends
10 – You’re Killing Me Inside
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