Parcels – Gamesofluck

Hideout era, 2016: Byron Bay to Berlin, Kitsuné disco that refuses to rush

On 28 October 2016, Parcels released Gamesofluck as a single through Kitsuné Musique / Because Music. The five-piece (Louie Swain, Patrick Hetherington, Noah Hill, Anatole Serret, Jules Crommelin) had formed in Byron Bay, Australia, in 2014 and moved to Berlin the same year. The track appears on their Hideout EP, issued 27 January 2017, their first Kitsuné project after earlier DIY singles (Myenemy, Anotherclock, Herefore). Sessions for Hideout were rebuilt after Paris writing trips: the band stripped computer demos and re-cut with more live playing before locking the EP.

Gamesofluck runs close to six minutes. A soft disco pulse, warm bass, and stacked soft vocals sit under a melody that never jumps to a shout. Keyboards carry the harmony; guitars stay clean. The groove holds a calm dance tempo rather than a peak-time drop. Compared with the later Daft Punk collaboration Overnight (2017), this cut is still the Berlin/Kitsuné club side of the band: polished, patient, and built for long plays rather than a three-minute radio edit.

There was no big-budget story video at launch. The band later posted strong live takes (Hansa Studios in Berlin, Le Palace in Paris, festival stages) that show the song as a full-group performance: two keyboards, guitar, bass, drums, five voices. In Australia, press framed the single as the fourth release in two years from a Byron Bay export already living in Europe. Hideout then became the bridge to the self-titled 2018 album and the wider touring cycle that followed.