TOMORA

[;]

BIG NEWS!!!!

So, this morning, I woke up to a YouTube notification. It was a reply to my comment on SBRK's upload of Ring The Alarm. And it was from an account called... "TOMORAOFFICIAL." Curious, I thought. What could that be?

I clicked on the channel to investigate. I saw that it was connected to a website: https://www.tomora.com/

On the website was a logo, a place to sign up for a newsletter, and live show dates...? Including Coachella? This was strange. At the very bottom of the page, I noticed it was attributed to UMG UK.

The account had one song uploaded, which was also on other streaming services, titled "ALRIGHT RAMEN." The song itself is just 20 seconds of static, with some beeping towards the end. I started thinking, what is this, some ARG? Did they just find this random video of RTA and decide to advertise on it?

I posted about it on Piku Playground, the chems discord server, where the lovely Hoosteen recognized that it seemed the name "Tomora" was a portmanteau of "Tom and "Aurora." The dots started connecting.

I looked again at the song title. What could "ALRIGHT RAMEN" mean? My internet mystery brain started kicking in, and I had the thought: could it be an anagram? I looked at the letters, and realized they looked familiar. Too familiar... then it hit me. "ALRIGHT RAMEN" is an anagram for "RING THE ALARM!"

It was all coming together. The song title, the name "Tomora," the fact RTA was registered on SACEM to just Tom and Aurora, the UMG publishing - Tomora is a collaboration project from Tom and Aurora, and it seems Ring The Alarm is a song from them.

Now, that's not the entire mystery. There are still a few things we might be able to decode.

Firstly, there's the "ALRIGHT RAMEN" track itself. We tried putting it in a spectrogram and looking to see if the frequencies showed an image (a common way to hide messages in audio), but nothing came of that. I tweaked with the audio, reversing it, slowing it, de-noising it, but couldn't find anything solid. It's possible there's nothing to it, and this is just static, but it would be super cool if there was something hidden in there.

There's also some more to the website. When you click anywhere on the page, some static briefly appears. I also accidentally found that, in the top right corner, there's an invisible button; when you press it, it shows some more static, and downloads an image on your computer. The image can actually vary, but they all have the title "VS--TomoraOfficialSite-0'0X"" where the X is 0, 1, or 2, and they are all just static.
By investigating the code of the website, I found a link to the video used for the static:

Interestingly, you'll notice in the URL is "haim". This might be in reference to the musical group Haim, but I have no idea what they would have to do with this. Credit to Instantreigen for picking that up!
The static itself, if you pause it, looks like it has some pieces of a QR code in it, but this might just be regular old static, and have no secret message to it. Or maybe it does 
 
They also have listed on the website several live show dates, like I mentioned, including Coachella! I'm really curious as to what these will be like, and whether they will be traditional playing music in front of a crowd, or a more immersive experience, something different.

Finally, they have several posts up on their socials. I won't go over all of them, though they are interesting, but the most noteworthy ones are the first one, and their latest.
Their first:

View this post on Instagram

It consists of a Marcus-and-Lyall style visual over the ALRIGHT RAMEN static, which at the end turns into a blob . This is the cover for ALRIGHT RAMEN. The caption is "TOMORA: A friendly companion on Earth 〰️." That emoji at the end is also what they said in their reply to my comment on the SBRK video.
And finally, their last:

View this post on Instagram

The audio is again ALRIGHT RAMEN, and the video is someone stamping vinyls with the "TOMORA" logo! This may mean that RTA is already having test prints, or being printed! Exciting!



So, TL;DR: It seems very likely that Tom and Aurora are coming together as "Tomora" and releasing Ring The Alarm, hopefully soon. They will also perform at Coachella and a few other festivals.
Edits: Embeds not working, lol

[nekoland]

I'm freaking out

[feedmevinyls]

The fact that they are forming this new project together instead of just releasing RTA as a solo track means that they must have a bunch more music on the way. Maybe even a full album considering they will be playing live

[whitelabel84]

... and the Instagram page is followed by Tom's partner Vanessa ... 🤔 

[feedmevinyls]

Tom Rowlands and Aurora Aksnes are listed as owners of TOMORA LIVE LLP so it looks like this is all but confirmed

[Ben_j]

Could this mean we're finaly getting The Universe Sent Me live next year ?

[hstn]

Could this mean we're finaly getting The Universe Sent Me live next year ?

hoping praying manifesting to every known god and the acid father himself that this happens

unrelated but worth noting that aurora had worked with adam smith and kate tabor on the visuals her last major tour, the LLP was founded seemingly as a live project too so are we to expect a fusion of both shows? perhaps her tour but with more modular chemical action from tom or something very avant garde...either way i'm so excited!!!

....and i wanna hear the universe live once and for all

[Csar]

Nice nod to Tom's love for ramen

Also interesting, this seems to be like at least 2 months in the making as per this reddit:

from r/Coachella

[feedmevinyls]

hoping praying manifesting to every known god and the acid father himself that this happens

unrelated but worth noting that aurora had worked with adam smith and kate tabor on the visuals her last major tour, the LLP was founded seemingly as a live project too so are we to expect a fusion of both shows? perhaps her tour but with more modular chemical action from tom or something very avant garde...either way i'm so excited!!!

....and i wanna hear the universe live once and for all

I don't think there is anything that special about it having an LLP. The Chems have their own one. It's just a standard thing for touring and creatively doesn't really indicate anything.

[Wolkenkrabber]

Wow, Chemical detectives of the world unite (as The Smiths once sang).

Firstly, there's the "ALRIGHT RAMEN" track itself. We tried putting it in a spectrogram and looking to see if the frequencies showed an image (a common way to hide messages in audio), but nothing came of that. I tweaked with the audio, reversing it, slowing it, de-noising it, but couldn't find anything solid. It's possible there's nothing to it, and this is just static, but it would be super cool if there was something hidden in there.

Gotta admire the effort! Maybe it's just the intro/outro?

There's also some more to the website. When you click anywhere on the page, some static briefly appears.

Hold down the left mouse button and it sustains.

I also accidentally found that, in the top right corner, there's an invisible button; when you press it, it shows some more static, and downloads an image on your computer.

Where? (No seriously, I can't find it!)

Finally, they have several posts up on their socials. 
Their first...
It consists of a Marcus-and-Lyall style visual over the ALRIGHT RAMEN static, which at the end turns into a blob . This is the cover for ALRIGHT RAMEN.

Presumably you mean Smith & Lyall.
How do you know it's the cover?
The image is reminiscent of Escape Velocity, IMHO.

And finally, their last
...the video is someone stamping vinyls with the "TOMORA" logo!

Like Superflash, which strongly suggests it's limited. Do we think that's 7" or 12" vinyl?

The fact that they are forming this new project together instead of just releasing RTA as a solo t they must have a bunch more music on the way.

I'll go with that!

... and the Instagram page is followed by Tom's partner Vanessa ... 🤔

And also:
Videomonkey (Pete Cross) who has worked with the Chems live
Nathan Detroit (DJ and Chem Friend)
AURORA France
Nick Dewey (Chem Friend)
Henry Rowlands (Followed by Ed. Is this a Tom kid?)

Tom Rowlands and Aurora Aksnes are listed as owners of TOMORA LIVE LLP so it looks like this is all but confirmed

Companies House? You're a pro!

Could this mean we're finaly getting The Universe Sent Me live next year ?

This isn't the first time a Chemical connection has responded in the comments of your YT videos, Ben. Is it just because your videos are so good, or do you have a famous follower on YT?

are we to expect a fusion of both shows?

Hmmm.
From No Geography:
Eve Of Destruction
Bango
The Universe Sent Me

From What Happened To The Heart:
My Name
My Body Is Not Mine

Tomora:
Ring The Alarm.

So six potential tracks so far? And yeah it'd be odd if they didn't use Smith & Lyle visuals.

this seems to be like at least 2 months in the making as per this reddit:

So "Dolittle" said two months ago "It's a collab with 2 well known artists." Who is Dolittle? Someone at UMG? Or a booker for Coachellla, perhaps?

Well done on all the detective work so far, folks.
Have any of the Aurora stans nicked BenJ's video and watermarked it as their own yet?..

[Ben_j]

This isn't the first time a Chemical connection has responded in the comments of your YT videos, Ben. Is it just because your videos are so good, or do you have a famous follower on YT?

I'm sure I'm on their radar, from my channel they also posted the Under the Influence at Glastonbury 2015 video on their socials in the past

[Ben_j]

On their youtube channel, there's a post "See you there" with this picture :



There seems to be coordinates but they're hard to read. I tried entering what I think I'm reading on the first one, but it's in the middle of the Pacific ocean 🤨

EDIT: it's in better resolution on Instagram, and it's just the coordinates of all 3 festivals.

[ThePumisher]

Could this mean we're finaly getting The Universe Sent Me live next year ?

Yeah, Hi Kevin live.
I'm in...

[Explud]

Exciting!

[Bosco]

Can anyone identify this:

Sleuthing lead me to this reddit post:

from r/NameThatSong

More project Tomora stuff?

[hstn]

Can anyone identify this:
More project Tomora stuff?

wow I had no idea about this one! the vocals definitely sound aurora too, wouldn't surprise me if this was a part of tomora, it haven't seemed played at all since tom's solo set either

also THERMAL GRAIN....RING THE ALARM IS COMING

View this post on Instagram

[Wolkenkrabber]

Can anyone identify this:
More project Tomora stuff?

Yeah it's Bed Love by Tomora.

When I last listened to this (and commented) in the summer, I was relying on my tinny laptop speakers which meant that:
a) I didn't hear that pumping bassline.
b) I thought I was listening to an alto saxophone, but now I think it's a vocal singing "da da da" or something. So we kinda have two layers of Aurora vocals going on.

[sneakerbeater]

This is such great news. 

I hope the live performance are not going to be just festival appearances. I hope they will play small venues. I miss seeing the chemical brothers playing live in nightclubs.

[;]

Nice nod to Tom's love for ramen

According to this Reddit comment, Aurora also posted a story a few days ago of a cat eating ramen!

Where? (No seriously, I can't find it!)

See attached file! It's to the top right of the "TOUR" button!

Presumably you mean Smith & Lyall. How do you know it's the cover?

Yes, my bad! 
Look at ALRIGHT RAMEN on streaming services. The image they use as the cover is the same as the one that appears at the end of the clip.

Like Superflash, which strongly suggests it's limited. Do we think that's 7" or 12" vinyl?

Either it's limited, or that may just be a test pressing?

So "Dolittle" said two months ago "It's a collab with 2 well known artists." Who is Dolittle? Someone at UMG? Or a booker for Coachellla, perhaps?

I saw that too, very interesting. I replied to their comment, but I doubt they'll respond.
Another user, Shot-Neighborhood287 also said "A very very epic collab.  I can't believe they put such an Easter egg at the end of the lineup." two months ago. I gotta wonder how they knew.

[Stefan]

I'm really curious what they cook up. Ramen are delicious XD