IAMX Strips Back the Signal on New Single “Artificial Innocence”
After a relentlessly energetic North American tour, Chris Corner’s IAMX returns to the spotlight with the new single “Artificial Innocence”, a track intricately dark and intimately raw. The release marks the beginning of a transition from the Fault Lines era towards the project’s next chapter. “Artificial Innocence” sees Corner deepening the broody atmosphere of Fault Lines while reintroducing the satisfyingly simplistic, straight-to-the-point synth-pop of Kiss + Swallow, IAMX’s debut. Corner’s unwavering voice carries the stark, confessional lyrics that wrestle with submission, control, and emotional numbness in a moment that is both vulnerable and aggressive.
Paired with the new single is a self-produced music video filmed in the expansive Southern California desert, emblematic of IAMX's fiercely independent art-punk ethos. Corner, partnering with contortionist and performer Katy Mikelle, creates a series of striking monochrome cinematic visuals with little more than an iPhone, DIY costuming, and mirrors.
IAMX is the long-running solo project of songwriter, producer, and visual auteur Chris Corner. Formed in the early 2000s following the dissolution of Sneaker Pimps, the trip-hop group he co-founded, IAMX emerged as a deliberate departure from industry structures and creative compromise. What began as a solo outlet evolved into a fully immersive artistic universe that fuses music, performance art, fashion, and film. Musically, IAMX resists static categorization. Across its catalog, the project traverses industrial electronics, dark cabaret, and experimental minimalism. Early releases such as Kiss + Swallow and The Alternative established a raw, confrontational aesthetic built on dense textures and confessional lyricism. Subsequent albums, notably Volatile Times and Fault Lines 1+2, expanded into broader sonic architectures while preserving an intimate core. Corner’s work consistently interrogates themes of identity, addiction, gender fluidity, trauma, power dynamics, and technological alienation. Visually, IAMX performances are equally uncompromising, combining stark lighting and confrontational imagery that destabilizes conventional masculinity and pop spectacle.
IAMX’s Artificial Innocence tour begins on March 14 with a top-billed performance at Leipzig, Germany's EoNLY Festival, followed by thirteen dates across Europe, all in cities where IAMX has not appeared in several years. Aux Animaux, an innovative hauntwave musician from Stockholm, will be supporting IAMX on the Artificial Innocence tour.
Later this year, IAMX will take the stage at the legendary gothic music festival M'Era Luna in Hildesheim, Germany, from August 8-9, and will also headline Infest in Manchester, UK, from August 21-23. In the Autumn, IAMX returns to Germany for UNITY 2026, with a lineup including VNV Nation and Zeromancer. UNITY 2026 will take place in Oberhausen on September 18-19 and in Berlin on October 2-3. Tickets to all upcoming shows are available now at tickets.iamxmusic.com
Over more than two decades, IAMX has cultivated a global following through relentless touring and direct audience connection. Corner maintains tight creative control over production, visuals, and branding, preserving the project’s independence while sustaining a cohesive aesthetic. This autonomy has allowed IAMX to evolve from the aggressive immediacy of its early years to more atmospheric, introspective recent works without diluting its core ethos.
Artificial Innocence is out now. It is available on streaming and Bandcamp.
