Category: Psych Rock

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstay MAGON Shares Trippy and Introspective “Simple Mind”

Over the past three years or so, I think I’ve spilled more virtual ink covering wildly prolific JOVM mainstays LutchamaK and Israeli-born Paris-based singer/songwriter, guitarist MAGON. 

Continuing upon a remarkably prolific period, MAGON released his fourth album, A Night in Bethlehem, earlier this year. I managed to write about three of the album’s singles — two in the lead-up to the album’s release:

  • “Halley’s Comet,” a dreamy bit of glam-like psych pop featuring glistening and reverb-drenched, post punk-inspired guitars, a simple back beat and fluttering and spacey feedback. Thematically, the song touched upon the immensity of historical and cosmic time: the narrator wonders how life and humanity will be the next time Halley’s Comet passes by our section of the cosmic neighborhood in 2061. 

  • “A Night in Bethlehem,” the album’s title track and second single, which featured a chugging, motorik groove paired with angular bursts of guitar, a razor sharp hook, intergalactic feedback and Magon’s ironically detached vocals. Thematically, the song explored the surrealist fringes of mysticism. 

  • “This Man,” another bit of glam-inspired psych featuring Ziggy Stardust-era Bowie groove paired with a steady yet propulsive backbeat, some lysergic guitar solos, a supple bass line and Magon’s imitable, ironically detached deadpan. But at its core is a narrator, who yearns for something deeper, more profound and more true in a mad, mad, mad world.

The day after the release show for A Night in Bethlehem, MAGON, along with his girlfriend and daughter relocated to Costa Rica. Interestingly, the JOVM mainstay’s latest single “Simple Mind” sees the Israeli-born artist gently refining his sound with hints of surf rock and jangle pop while retaining the hook-driven nature of his previously released material. Written during a major life transition, “Simple Mind” features a narrator, who’s closing a chapter in his career and life and is moving on to a new start, new possibilities and new horizons.

Animated by Violette Legoupil and Ronan Hubert-Duprat, the accompanying video for “Simple Mind” is rooted in a sort of Biblical return to nature while being mind-bending and lysergic.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: The Murlocs Perform “Living Under A Rock” at The Forum

With the release of their first four albums, The Murlocs  — King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s Ambrose Kenny-Smith (vocals, guitar, harmonica) and Cook Craig (bass) along with ORB’s Cal Shortal (guitar) and Crepes‘ and Beans’ Matt Blach (drums) and Tim Karmouche (keys)— firmly established a reputation for crafting fuzzy psychedelic blues, which they supported as an opener for the likes of Gary Clark, Jr., Mac DeMarco, Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees, Pixies, Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks, Wavves and of course, Kenny-Smith’s and Craig’s primary gig, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard — and as a headlining act, as well. 

Recorded at Button Pushers Studio, last year’s Tim Dunn-produced, 11-song Bittersweet Demons found the band lovingly reflecting on the people, who have left a profound impact on their lives — the saviors, the hell raisers and other assorted and mystifying and complex characters they’ve come across. While being among the most personal and complex batch of material they’ve written in their growing catalog, the album saw the band bouncing between and around sun-blasted pop, blues punk and wide-eyed psychedelia. 

Rapscallion, The Murlocs’ sixth and latest album was released last month through ATO Records. Self-produced by the band during the early stages of the pandemic, Rapscallion‘s 12 songs were recorded in the home studios of the band’s Kenny-Smith, Shortal, Blach, Cook Craig and Karmouche. Conceived and written as a coming-of-age novel in album form, the album’s material is partly inspired by Kenny-Smith’s adolescence as a nomadic skate kid. The album’s world is wild and squalid, populated by an outrageous cast of misfits — teenage vagabonds, small-time criminals, junkyard dwellers and truck-stop transients among others. The end result is an album that thematically — and narratively — is steeped in danger, delirium and wide-eyed romanticism of youth. 

Sonically, Rapscallion is reportedly a marked departure from Bittersweet Demons‘ garage rock leanings, with the album’s material featuring strains of stoner metal and post punk. And while darker and more formidable, the album’s songs are still fueled by the same freewheeling energy they’ve brought to the stage. 

In the lead up to the album’s release, I wrote about three of its singles:

  • “Virgin Criminal,” a decidedly post-punk song centered around buzzing and angular guitar attack, a forceful motorik groove, Kenny-Smith’s punchy and breathless delivery paired with the band’s unerring knack for rousingly anthemic hooks. And at its core is a tale of an unnamed protagonist, who describes his first crime, an ill-fated convenience store robbery, which ends in murder — and the wild thrill the narrator gets from being an outlaw. 

  • “Compos Mentis,” a slow-burning and pensive ballad featuring fuzzy and distorted guitars, twinkling keys and a motorik-like groove paired Kenny-Smith’s imitable delivery. While seeing the band exploring a more contemplative — and perhaps even softer — side, “Compos Mentis,” asks a far deeper, far more vexing question: Are we in control of our own minds?

  • “Bellarine Ballerina,” a roaring and rollicking, mosh pit friendly ripper centered around buzzing power chords, thunderous drumming ad a relentless motorik groove. But the song is underpinned by a never-heard-before sense of malice and unease.

The JOVM mainstays will be embarking on a headlining fall North American tour that includes a November 9, 2022 stop at Webster Hall. As always tour dates are below. You can check out the following link for ticket information and to purchase: https://unclemurl.com/shows. To celebrate the occasion, the Aussie JOVM mainstays shared live footage of the band performing album track “Living Under a Rock” at The Forum: The live footage offers fans and critics, who haven’t seem them, a taste of their explosive and rollicking live show– while capturing the band playing a furious ripper. “Some people live a sheltered life by choice and some people are born into it,” The Murlocs’ Ambrose Kenny-Smith says. “‘Rapscallion’ has had enough of living under a rock. It’s time for a fresh start.”

Fans will also have an opportunity to connect with the band directly at their Reddit r/indieheads AMA taking place, Sunday November 6, 2022 at 7:00PM ET/9:00am Melbourne.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays TEKE: TEKE Return with Cinematic and Mischievous “Dobugawa”

Initially started as a loving homage and tribute band to legendary Japanese guitarist Takeshi “Terry” Terauchi, the Montreal-based collective TEKE: TEKE – Yuki Isami (flute, shinobue and keys), Hidetaka Yoneyama (guitar), Sergio Nakauchi Pelletier (guitar), Mishka Stein (bass), Etienne Lebel (trombone), Ian Lettree (drums, percussion) and Maya Kuroki (vocals, keys and percussion) —  features a collection of accomplished Montreal-based musicians, who have played with the likes of Pawa Up First, Patrick Wilson, Boogat, Gypsy Kumbia Orchestra and others.

With the release of their debut EP 2018’s Jikaku, the members of the Montreal-based septet came into their own highly unique and difficult to pigeonhole sound that features elements of Japanese Eleki surf rock, shoegaze, post-punk, psych rock, ska, Latin music and Balkan music.

Kill Rock Stars Records, released the Canadian collective’s full-length debut Shirushi last year, and in the lead-up to the album’s release, I wrote about five of its singles:  

  • “Kala Kala:” Deriving its title from a phrase that roughly translates to English as clattering, “Kala Kala” is centered around a mind-melting arrangement and song structure, Kuroki’s howling and crooning. And to my ears, the track accurately captures the band’s frenetic live energy. 

  • “Chidori,” a cinematic yet mosh pit friendly freak out that’s one part psych rock, one part Dick Dale-like surf rock, one part Ennio Morricone soundtrack delivered with a frenetic aplomb. 

  • “Meikyu:” Deriving its title from the Japanese word for labyrinth, the track is a no bullshit, no filler all killer ripper with menacing guitar work, dramatic bursts of trombone, fluttering flute, thumping tribal drumming and some wild soloing within an expansive, mind-melting song structure.  

  • Yoru Ni,” a fever dream featuring dreamy blasts of flute and trombone, menacing and slashing guitars and intricate Japanese shamisen. Deriving its name from the Japanese phrase for “at night,” the song despite it’s mischievous tone, is a somewhat romantic and spiritual tale about its central character letting go of a long-held delusional quest. 

  • “Barbara,” a mischievous and cinematic track with a stomping, punk rock energy that sounds like the perfect soundtrack for a misfit circus — or the Coney Island Mermaid Parade, as each instrumental part seemingly introducing a new and strange character. Much like the previously released singles, “Barbara” captures the frenetic energy of their live sets. The lyrics as the band explained are a twisted take on zashiki-warashi, spirit beings, who like to perform pranks and bring good fortune to those who see them. 

The Montreal-based JOVM mainstays announced a short run of tour dates that includes their first ever New York stop, November 11, 2022 at Public Records. As always, you can check out the rest of the tour dates below. And along with the tour announcement, the band shared a new single from the album, “Dobugawa,” a cinematic song that feels and sounds like a seamless Twin Peaks-era David Lynch and French chanson, with a subtle bit of mischievous fantasy.

The songs title translates into English as “dirty river,” and it sets the scene for an off-kilter, romantic tale about the ambiguity of identity. “Set in a poor industrialized town in 1930’s Showa-era Japan, an ambiguous couple take a stroll along a dirty river (Dobugawa) said to be filled with all the city’s hidden words,” TEKE: TEKE’s Maya Kuroki says.

Animated by the band’s Maya Kuroki and edited by the band’s Serge Pelletier, employs the use traditional animation and collage, which emphasizes the fantastic and surreal elements of the song — while being subtly menacing. “This is a very cinematic song, with elements of fantasy and surrealism. I wanted to keep the animation simple so as to give off a dark, sparse feeling of what lies beneath in contrast to what otherwise seems like a peaceful, spring afternoon, Kuroki explains.

The video also features English-translated subtitles, allowing the viewer to further engage with the song’s lyric and meaning.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Frankie and the Witch Fingers Share a Furious Ripper

Since initially forming in Bloomington, IN over a decade ago, Los Angeles-based psych rock outfit Frankie and the Witch Fingers — featuring core trio Dylan Sizemore (vocals, guitar), multi-instrumentalist Josh Menashe and Shaughnessy Starr (drums) — have long been known for restless experimentation rooted in multiple permutations of their lineup, and for a high-powered, scuzzy, garage punk meets thrash punk take on psych rock centered around absurdist lyrics, often fueled by dreams, hallucinations, paranoia and lust. The end result is material that manages to be simultaneously mischievous and menacing.

When Starr joined the band, the band went through one of their many sonic permutations, which led to a lysergic and claustrophobic sound rooted in heavy, Black Sabbath-like riffage.

2020’s Monsters Eating People Eating Monsters . . .was released through Greenway Records and Levitation Festival‘s label The Reverberation Appreciation Society. Recorded in a breakneck five-day recording session, the album features much more insidiously evil and ambitious material while capturing the band in the middle of massive personnel changes: Longtime bassist Alex Bulli left the band and as a result, Josh Menashe wound up writing and playing most of the albums bass parts with occasional contributions from Dylan Sizemore.

Interestingly, much like King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard‘s 2019 effort Infest the Rats Nest, Monsters Eating People Eating Monsters . . . saw the band crafting expansive, maximalist material with fewer moving parts.

Since the release of Monsters, the members of Frankie and The Witch Fingers have been busy: They’ve written and recorded new material, which included last year’s “Cookin'” seven inch. “Cookin’” further cements the Los Angeles-based psych rockers’ long-held reputation for scorching rifffage paired with a punchy baseline and a rousingly anthemic, sing-along chorus. While superficially, a rollocking party starter, the song is rooted in incisive social commentary commentary with the song calling out humanity’s obliviousness, greed and wastefulness with a righteous fury.

Just as they about to embark on a series of Stateside shows before heading to Australia, Frankie and The Witch Fingers share their newest single “Electricide,” the A-side of a double single that sees the Los Angeles-based psych rockers crafting a breakneck, mosh pit ripper centered around scorching, eardrum shattering riffage paired with Sizemore’s howls and shouts. Interestingly, “Electricide” sees the band capturing the heaviness and power of their explosive, sweaty live show.

Directed by Bez Martinez, the accompanying video for “Electricide,” is set at a photo shoot for a a new, titular, Gatorade-like drink that turns very strange: The shoot’s model, Natty Jackson, winds up passing out and being taken to a weird and dark plane of the universe, where nanobots plot to take over our plane.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: GIFT Shares Hazy “Stuck In A Dream”

Brooklyn-based psych rock quintet and newest JOVM mainstays GIFT — TJ Freda, Jessica Gurewitz, Kallan Campbell, Justin Hrabovsky and Cooper Naess — have an uncanny knack for crafting soundscapes that are simultaneously turbulent and gorgeous. As a band, they share the quest of the perfect sound rooted in harmony and radical openness during times of tumult.

As a band, their overall approach is rooted in a desire to live in the moment. And as a result, they’ve created a live show that sees them pushing their material in wildly improvisatory directions. And a result, the’ve been selling out shows in Brooklyn — mostly through word of mouth.

Dedstrange Records, a new label co-founded by A Place to Bury Strangers’ and Death by Audio’s Oliver Ackermann and Kepler Events‘ Steven Matrick signed the rising Brooklyn psych rockers earlier this year. Building upon the growing buzz surrounding the band, the Brooklyn psych outfit’s full-length debut Momentary Presence dropped today.

Inspired by Ram Dass’ 1971 spiritual guide and countercultural landmark Be Here Now, Momentary Presence is a meditation on working through the anxiety and self-doubt that we all, at some point or another, carry. Specifically conceived, written and recorded with the idea of a full-length album being a fully contained work of art, the songs on Momentary Presence reportedly tease something seismic coming around the corner, while featuring dense layered productions that feel and sound self-assured, complete, definitive and impermeable. This is rooted in the band’s belief that each moment has richness, complexity and singularity. And once it’s gone, it can’t be recaptured or repeated. 

Thematically speaking, the album asks the listener several key questions: Can you truly be present? Can you open yourself up and appreciate life in its fullness — the ugliness and confusion, as well as the beauty and joy? The members of GIFT believe that the listener can. And their full-length debut is a chronicle of that chase, and a celebration of the eternal now. 

I managed to write about three of the album’s singles in the lead-up to its release:

  • “Gumball Garden,” a towering ripper centered around an expansive and densely layered arrangement featuring scorching guitar pyrotechnics, fuzzy power chords, glistening synth arpeggios, thunderous drumming and a relentless motorik groove paired with rousingly anthemic hooks and Freda’s gentle cooing. Sonically, “Gumball Garden” brings Join the Dots-era TOY, Minami Deutsch, Kikagaku Moyo, JOVM mainstays No Swoon and others to mind. 

  • “Feather,” a slow-burning and contemplative song with painterly textures featuring glistening synth arpeggios, skittering, metronomic beats paired with Freda’s ethereal cooing, a soaring hook and a blazing guitar solo. While simultaneously evoking both a feather floating in the breeze, Autobahn-era Kraftwerk and The Pleasure Principle-era Gary Numan, the song was written by the band’s TJ Freda the morning after waking from a lucid dream. 

  • “Share The Present,” a slick synthesis of Join the Dots-era Toy and The Horrors centered around glistening synth arpeggios and a relentless motorik groove paired with wiry bursts of guitar. The arrangement serves as an airy bed for TJ Freda’s breathily cooed, gentle affirmations. The song manages to present the album’s central theme of being present in the present moment — without attempting to look towards the future or dwell on the past.

 “Stuck In A Dream,” Momentary Presence‘s fourth and latest single pairs Freda’s dreamy falsetto with gleaming, retro-futuristic synths, thrumming and fuzzy guitars, enormous hooks and a relentless motorik groove. Much like the previously released singles, “Stuck In A Dream” is a lysergic-induced dream that wraps the listener in warm, hazy cocoon.

“‘Stuck In A Dream’ is about being stuck in a loop,” says Freda. “The idea of being stuck in a dream, stuck in the idea of someone or something, and not being able to look at it from the outside, to reveal if it’s good or bad.”

Directed by the band’s TJ Freda, the accompanying video for “Stuck In A Dream” features hazy VHS colors and scan lines that fits the fuzzy psychedelia of the song, while seeking the eject button from the seemingly unending cycles of fast-forward, play and rewind.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Jules de Gasperis is a French-American singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, who started his career behind the scenes working with the likes of Ratatat and KUNZITE‘s Mike Stroud and Low Hum. de Gasperis’ project Edgar Everyone sees the French-American singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer stepping out into the spotlight as a solo artist — with a unique sound, approach and style that he developed through his work as a producer.

de Gasperis sees Edgar Everyone as a project that will allow him to fully explore himself as a musician and as a human His latest single “Suddenly You Move” is a seemingly Tame Impala-like bit of psychedelia centered around squiggly synth arpeggios, a relentless and funky, motorik-like groove paired with de Gasperis’ yearning vocal and some remarkably well-placed, razor sharp hooks. Interestingly, the song is split into two distinct parts: A brooding and slow-burning introduction, which conveys both a sensation of being lost and yearning for something — and not quite knowing how to get it. The song builds up to a euphoric climax, which conveys that the song’s narrator has found what he has been seeking for so long.

The song was inspired by the Californian mountains, where de Gaspertis retreated to escape city life. In his adventure, the French-American singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer shares that he was able to “face [his] own loneliness, and the deepest parts of [himself],” thus evoking the lyrics “The desert’s becoming a friendly place / My dreams are mine and everyone’s.”

With “Suddenly You Move,” de Gaspertis “wanted to design a track that would have two very distinct parts,” those being a semi-chaotic and clouded verse to illustrate a sort of “mental maze” he finds himself in, accompanied by a transcendent chorus that brings immediate relief to the disarray conveyed prior. “While in the mountains, I was oscillating between moments of hard solitude, and extreme bliss with gaining clarity about my life’s path – it all made sense to translate it into a song.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

London-based instrumental outfit Los Bitchos — Australian-born, Serra Petale (guitar); Uruguayan-born Agustina Ruiz (keytar); Swedish-born, Josefine Jonsson (bass) and London-born and-based Nic Crawshaw (drums) — can trace their origins to meeting at various late-night parties and through mutual friends. Inspired by their individual members’ different upbringings and backgrounds, Los Bitchos have developed a unique, genre-blurring and retro-futuristic sound blends elements of Peruvian chicha, Argentine cumbia, Turkish psych and surf rock, as well the music each individual member grew up with: 

  • The Uruguayan-born Ruiz had a Latin-American music collection that the members of the band fell in love with. 
  • The Swedish-born Jonsson “brings a touch of out of control pop,” her bandmates often joke. 
  • Aussie-born Serra Petale is deeply inspired by her mother’s 70s Anatolian rock records. 
  • And the London-born Crawshaw played in a number of local punk bands before joining Los Bitchos.

“Coming from all these different places,” Los Bitchos’ Serra Petale says, “it means we’re not stuck in one genre and we can rip up the rulebook a bit when it comes to our influences.”

Los Bitchos’ Alex Kapranos-produced full-length debut,  Let The Festivities Begin! was released earlier this year. Recorded at Gallery Studios, Let The Festivities Begin! sees the London-based instrumental outfit further establishing their reputation for crafting maximalist and trippy, Technicolor, instrumental party starting jams — with a cinematic quality. 

The album’s celebratory title is something you might say while toasting dear friends, families and even strangers at a gathering — and hopefully at the of this horrible period of despair and uncertainty, as a way to usher in a period of carefree debauchery. “It’s about being together and having a really good time,” Los Bitchos say in press notes.

If you’ve been frequenting this site over the course of this year, you might recall that I managed to write about four of the album’s singles:

  • “Las Panteras” a funky, mind-bending jam featuring shimmering synths bongos, cowbell, cabasa and wiry post punk meets Nile Rodgers and surf rock-like guitars and a sinuous bass line. 
  • “Good to Go,” another mind-bending, genre-blurring composition that begins with a decidedly Western intro with shimmering and reverb-drenched guitar twang before quickly morphing into a a trippy yet chilled out Latin funk meets Turkish psych affair with glistening synths, handclaps and a blazing guitar solo. 
  • “Pista (Fresh Start),” a slick and trippy synthesis of chicha, cumbia and psych rock featuring looping guitars and dance floor friendly Latin rhythms. 
  • “The Link Is About To Die,” a trippy party friendly groove featuring looping and glistening guitars, twinkling synths and shuffling rhythms.

The rapidly rising JOVM mainstays will cap off a momentous year with two singles “Los Chrismos,” their first-ever Christmas themed composition and “Tipp Tapp,” which will be released digitally and physically on November 18, 2022 on a flexi disc bundled with a red vinyl re-press of their debut album. Co-produced, by the band’s Serra Petal and Javier Weyler, the two new tracks were recorded at 5db.

The first single of the batch, the Christmas-themed “Los Chismos,” is a celebratory party, starting romp with cheers and shouts, centered around a dexterous and looping guitar line, atmospheric synths that’s one-part cumbia, one-part psych rock and 100% unadulterated joy. Here in the States, we haven’t gotten to Halloween, let alone Thanksgiving but that’s besides the point. The song is a much-needed and infectious burst of fun and hope.

“‘Los Chrismos’ is our ‘80s nostalgic Christmas dreamland. Shoop-shooping down the slopes into a cosy chalet strewn with fairy lights, join us for a glass of bubbly and a cosy Christmas party full of festivities!” The band shares. “We can’t wait to get dressed up and play this song on our Chrismos tour.” 

Los Bitchos will close out the year with a number of festival dates, along with select dates opening for Franz Ferdinand during their October and November UK tour. They also will open for Pavement in London. December will see the band playing across the UK and European Union. All tour dates are below.

Tour Dates: 

Oct 15 Leeds, UK – Live at Leeds ‘In The City’ 

Oct 19 Manchester, UK – O2 Victoria Warehouse – w/ Franz Ferdinand 

Oct 20 London, UK – Alexandra Palace – w/ Franz Ferdinand 

Oct 21 Cardiff, UK – Swn Festival Weekend 

Oct 24 London, UK – The Roundhouse w/ Pavement 

Nov 5 Brighton, UK – Mutations Festival 

Nov 10 Glasgow, UK – OVO Hydro – w/ Franz Ferdinand 

Nov 12 Glasgow, UK – The Great Western Festival 

Nov 13 Kortrijk, BE – Sonic City Festival 

Dec 2 – London @ Heaven^ 

Dec 7 – Berlin @ Silent Green* 

Dec 8 – Amsterdam @ Paradiso Noord* 

Dec 9 – Luxembourg @ Rotondes* 

Dec 10 – Bern @ ISC Club* 

“Los Chrismos” Headline Tour Dates w/ support from: 

* – Takeshi’s Cashew 

^ – audiobooks

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Montreal’s Atsuko Chiba Shares Sprawling and Cinematic “Seeds”

Through the release of two albums and a couple of EPs, Montreal-based psych outfit Atusko Chiba — Karim Lakhdar (guitar, vocals, synthesizer), Kevin McDonald (guitar, synthesizer), David Palumbo (bass guitar, vocals), Anthony Piazza (drums) and Erik Schafhauser (guitar, synthesizer) — have developed and honed a reputation for crafting a genre-defying sound with a cohesive and hypnotic blend of post-rock, prog rock and krautrock paired with offbeat, subversive songwriting.

Live, the Montreal psych outfit pairs their unique brand of experimental rock with video and light installations trigged in real time by the band, creating an immersive multimedia, multi-sensorial environment. Over the past handful of years, the band has toured across Canada, the States and Europe, sharing states with the likes of . . . And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, Big Business, Duchess Says, King Buffalo, and others.

Atusko Chiba’s highly-anticipated third album Water, It Feels Like It’s Growing is slated for a January 20, 2023 release through Montreal-based purveyors of psychedelia, Mothland. The album reportedly finds the Canadian quintet crafting a collection of drone-driven yet bombastic material that may draw comparisons to the likes of The Mars Volta, Beak> and Spirit of the Beehive among others.

“As opposed to our last album, which was about introspection, spacetime and the personal journey, the themes explored on this new album are related to our environment and our reaction to it,” the members of Atsuko Chiba explain. “Though not meant to be strictly political, our references stem from highly politicized movements and ideas. Division and group ideology are heavily explored. A prime example is the weaponization of vocabulary used to distract, displace and alienate us, forcing us to pick sides on every front. Our lyrics also strongly denote our innate love for all living things, encompassing a hopeful, if somewhat violent, plea for change.”

Clocking in at 7:45, Water, It Feels Like It’s Growing‘s first single “Seeds” is a slow-burning and brooding bit of A Storm in Heaven-meets-Dark Side of the Moon-like psychedelia centered around lush, glistening synths, swirling guitar riffs, tweeter and woofer rattling boom bap-like drumming paired heavily distorted vocal harmonies. The single also features a gorgeous contribution from Montreal-based string quartet Quatuor Esca, who perform an arrangement by Gabriel Desjardins. While possessing a sprawling, widescreen atmosphere, “Seeds” evokes a creeping sense of impending uncertainty and doom but with the tacit understanding that perhaps not all is lost — at least not yet.

Directed by longtime friend and collaborator Rodrigo Sergio, the accompanying video for “Seeds” shows performing artist and dancer Jade Maya embodying the song’s themes through physical movements that are subtle or violent in a variety of environments — both natural and man-made.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: GIFT Shares Motorik-Driven Affirmation “Share The Present”

Brooklyn-based psych rock quintet GIFT — TJ Freda, Jessica Gurewitz, Kallan Campbell, Justin Hrabovsky and Cooper Naess — have developed and honed an uncanny knack for crafting soundscapes that are simultaneously turbulent and gorgeous. As a band, they share the quest of the perfect sound rooted in harmony and radical openness during times of tumult.

Their overall approach is a desire to live in the moment. In fact, live they’ve created a live experience that sees them pushing their material in wildly improvisatory directions — and as a result, they’ve been selling out shows in Brooklyn, mostly through word of mouth.

Dedstrange Records, a new label co-founded by A Place to Bury Strangers’ and Death by Audio’s Oliver Ackermann and Kepler Events‘ Steven Matrick signed the rising Brooklyn psych rockers earlier this year. The new label will be releasing GIFT’s full-length debut Momentary Presence on October 14, 2022.

Inspired by Ram Dass’ 1971 spiritual guide and countercultural landmark Be Here Now, Momentary Presence is a meditation on working through the anxiety and self-doubt that we all, at some point or another, carry. Specifically conceived, written and recorded with the idea of a full-length album being a fully contained work of art, the songs on Momentary Presence reportedly tease something seismic coming around the corner, while featuring dense layered productions that feel and sound self-assured, complete, definitive and impermeable. This is rooted in the band’s belief that each moment has richness, complexity and singularity. And once it’s gone, it can’t be recaptured or repeated. 

The album asks the listener several key questions: Can you truly be present? Can you open yourself up and appreciate life in its fullness — the ugliness and confusion, as well as the beauty and joy? The members of GIFT believe that the listener can. And their full-length debut is a chronicle of that chase, and a celebration of the eternal now. 

In the lead-up to the album’s release next week, I’ve written about two of the album’s previously released singles:

  • “Gumball Garden,” a towering ripper centered around an expansive and densely layered arrangement featuring scorching guitar pyrotechnics, fuzzy power chords, glistening synth arpeggios, thunderous drumming and a relentless motorik groove paired with rousingly anthemic hooks and Freda’s gentle cooing. Sonically, “Gumball Garden” brings Join the Dots-era TOY, Minami Deutsch, Kikagaku Moyo, JOVM mainstays No Swoon and others to mind. 

  • “Feather,” a slow-burning and contemplative song with painterly textures featuring glistening synth arpeggios, skittering, metronomic beats paired with Freda’s ethereal cooing, a soaring hook and a blazing guitar solo. While simultaneously evoking both a feather floating in the breeze, Autobahn-era Kraftwerk and The Pleasure Principle-era Gary Numan, the song was written by the band’s TJ Freda the morning after waking from a lucid dream. 

 Momentary Presence‘s third and latest single “Share The Present” is centered around a glistening synth arpeggios and a relentless motorik groove paired with wiry bursts of guitar. The arrangement serves as a airy bed for TJ Freda’s breathily cooed, gentle affirmations. Sonically, the song seems like a slick synthesis of Join the Dots-era Toy and The Horrors.

“Sharing the present is being in the present moment. Not looking towards the future or dwelling on the past,” GIFT’s TJ Freda explains. “Being present is the most important thing you can do when you are feeling down. ‘Don’t look back, you’ll fall down’ don’t dwell on the past of who you were. Look to the present moment and appreciate who you are and where you’re going.” 

Directed by Andrew Gibson, the accompanying video for “Share The Present” follows an older couple, Claudia and Leonard. And when we’re introduced to them, we get a sense of profound loss under the superficially vibrant personas and colorful clothing. They miss a loved one, who turns out to be GIFT’s TJ Freda. While watching an informercial, they purchase an odd gift that reconnects them with their beloved TJ in a surreal universe. The couple purchases another gift box, which contains a toy car that takes them on a lysergic adventure. It’s a cinematically shot surrealistic fever dream — with a mischievous vibe.

“When I first met Claudia and Leonard, I sensed a deep sadness burrowed under their vibrant personas,” director Andrew Gibson says in press notes. “It wasn’t until a few weeks later, when they invited me over for a lovely breakfast, that I learned the source of their pain was related to the strange disappearance of their adopted nephew TJ. It was at that moment that I vowed to help them in any way I could in their quest to reconnect with the holy Taj. It has been quite a journey to say the least, but ultimately incredibly rewarding once the magical mailman arrived with the gift that would change everything. After meeting TJ it became quite clear why Claudia and Leonard were so determined to find him, to put it simply, he’s just a great kid.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays The Black Angels Share Urgent “Empires Falling”

With five albums under their collective belts, Austin-based JOVM mainstays  The Black Angels —  currently Alex Maas (vocals, bass), Christian Bland (guitar), Stephanie Bailey (drums), Jake Garcia (guitar) and multi-instrumentalist Ramiro Verdooren — have firmly cemented a unique take on psych rock that remains true to psych rock forebears like  Syd Barrett, Roky Erickson, Arthur Lee, and The Velvet Underground, while thematically touching upon contemporary concerns. 

Interestingly, during that same period of time, the members of the acclaimed Austin-based JOVM mainstays have also managed to build a global profile within the international psych rock scene, a profile that has been further cemented by their long-running celebration of all things psychedelic, Levitation Festival, which celebrates its 15th anniversary this year. 

If you’ve been frequenting this site over the past couple of months, you may recall that this year is a big year in the band’s almost two decade history: Their sixth album — and first in over five years, Wilderness of Mirrors is slated for a Friday release through Partisan Records. Co-produced by the band and Brett Orrison with engineering by John Agnello, Wilderness of Mirrors reportedly finds the band attempting to achieve something fresh and new through a gentle and subtle refinement of the sound that has won them fans across the globe. 

Throughout Wilderness of Mirrors‘ material, the band adds mellotron, string arrangements and an assortment of different keyboards to the mix, which adds different textures to their overall sound. Thematically, the album continues upon their long-held reputation for touching upon contemporary concerns — in particular, our uncertain and urgent moment of political tumult, the pandemic, and the ongoing devastation of the environment and its long-term implications to us and our descendants, among others. 

So far I’ve written about three of the soon-to-be released album’s singles:

  • “El Jardín,” a single, which at first glance is classic Black Angels: Bailey’s thunderous time keeping, Maas’ plaintive falsetto and supple bass lines paired with layers upon layers of guitar pyrotechnics and effects from Bland and Garcia — but the song’s sparking and brooding bridge sees the band adding bursts of twinkling Rhodes to the mix. Written from the perspective of our dear Mother Earth, “El Jardín” is a forceful and urgent warning to all of us: destroying the environment will ultimately lead to the destruction of humanity. 

  • “Firefly,” a loving yet classic Black Angels-like homage to 60s French pop, featuring a guest spot from Thievery Corporation‘s LouLou Ghelickhani, who contributes sultrily delivered vocals in French and English, alongside Maas’ imitable falsetto and paired with a hook-driven arrangement featuring reverb-drenched guitars, Maas’ supple and propulsive bass lines, some simple yet forceful timekeeping from Bailey and twinkling keys. 

  • “Without A Trace,” a bit of classic, Passover through Directions to See a Ghost-era Black Angels centered around fuzzy and distorted power chords, a reverb-drenched guitar solo, Bailey’s thunderous and propulsive time keeping paired with Maas’ imitable vocal delivery and supple bass lines. The song sonically and thematically is an eerie and brooding meditation that asks “is is still possible to be invincible when everyone else is expendable.” 

“Empires Falling,” Wilderness of Mirrors‘ latest single may arguably be among the most politically charged songs on the entire album. Centered around scorching guitar riffs, Maas’ imitable falsetto, a propulsive and supple bass line and Bailey’s forceful time keeping, “Empires Falling” continues a run of material that harkens back to their earliest releases — but with an urgency that fits our desperate, uneasy time.

“‘Empires Falling’ is a critical and reflective plea that examines humanity’s repetitive art of violent mass destruction. As we say in the chorus, ‘it’s history on repeat.'” The Black Angels explain in press notes. ” We are living in a ‘Wilderness Of Mirrors’, where it’s hard to tell what’s right from wrong, up from down, or the truth from lies as we navigate through these times where the fate of humanity is being refracted and reflected from one state of panic to another. The world is a ‘bleeding animal’ and we are left exhausted, polarized, and ‘pleading from street to bloody street.’  History has proven, time and time again, that without a drastic metamorphosis from our leaders, politics, and ultimately ourselves... ‘you can be the one who saves yourself, or you can watch it all go to hell.'”

Directed by Craig Staggs and featuring animation by Minnow Mountain, the accompanying video for “Empires Falling” captures humanity’s brutal and oppressive history endlessly repeating in front of a psychedelic hellscape.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Murlocs Share Wild and Surreal VIsual for Roaring “Bellarine Ballerina”

With the release of their first four albums, The Murlocs  — King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s Ambrose Kenny-Smith (vocals, guitar, harmonica) and Cook Craig (bass) along with ORB’s Cal Shortal (guitar) and Crepes‘ and Beans’ Matt Blach (drums) and Tim Karmouche (keys)— firmly established a reputation for crafting fuzzy psychedelic blues, which they supported as an opener for the likes of Gary Clark, Jr., Mac DeMarco, Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees, Pixies, Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks, Wavves and of course, Kenny-Smith’s and Craig’s primary gig, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard — and as a headlining act, as well. 

Recorded at Button Pushers Studio, last year’s Tim Dunn-produced, 11-song Bittersweet Demons found the band lovingly reflecting on the people, who have left a profound impact on their lives — the saviors, the hell raisers and other assorted and mystifying and complex characters they’ve come across. While being among the most personal and complex batch of material they’ve written in their growing catalog, the album saw the band bouncing between and around sun-blasted pop, blues punk and wide-eyed psychedelia. 

The Murlocs’ sixth album Rapscallion is slated for a Friday release through ATO Records. Self-produced by the band during the early stages of the pandemic, Rapscallion‘s 12 songs were recorded in the home studios of the band’s Kenny-Smith, Shortal, Blach, Cook Craig and Karmouche. Conceived and written as a coming-of-age novel in album form, the album’s material is partly inspired by Kenny-Smith’s adolescence as a nomadic skate kid. The album’s world is wild and squalid, populated by an outrageous cast of misfits — teenage vagabonds, small-time criminals, junkyard dwellers and truck-stop transients among others. The end result is an album that thematically — and narratively — is stepped in danger, delirium and wide-eyed romanticism of youth. 

Sonically, Rapscallion is reportedly a marked departure from Bittersweet Demons‘ garage rock leanings, with the album’s material featuring strains of stoner metal and post punk. And while darker and more formidable, the album’s songs are still fueled by the same freewheeling energy they’ve brought to the stage. 

So far I’ve written about two of the album’s singles:

  • “Virgin Criminal,” a decidedly post-punk song centered around buzzing and angular guitar attack, a forceful motorik groove, Kenny-Smith’s punchy and breathless delivery paired with the band’s unerring knack for rousingly anthemic hooks. And at its core is a tale of an unnamed protagonist, who describes his first crime, an ill-fated convenience store robbery, which ends in murder — and the wild thrill the narrator gets from being an outlaw. 

  • “Compos Mentis,” a slow-burning and pensive ballad featuring fuzzy and distorted guitars, twinkling keys and a motorik-like groove paired Kenny-Smith’s imitable delivery. While seeing the band exploring a more contemplative — and perhaps even softer — side, “Compos Mentis,” asks a far deeper, far more vexing question: Are we in control of our own minds?

The album’s third and last single before its release, “Bellarine Ballerina” is a roaring and rollicking, hook-driven, most pit friendly ripper centered around buzzing power chords, thunderous drumming and a relentless motorik groove. But underneath is a sense of malice and unease unlike any of their previously released work.

Directed by frequent collaborator Guy Tyzack, the accompanying video for “Bellarine Ballerina” is a surreal romp that fits the rollicking and roaring air of the song. “Growing up on then Victorian surf coast, I’d often find myself hitching rides up and down the Bellarine Highway. ‘Rapscallion’ finds himself experiencing this for the first time, and is picked up by a trucker that’s been behind the wheel for a little too long,” The Murlocs’ Kenny-Smith explains in press notes. “Whilst being away on tour when it came time to shoot the video, our good friend and collaborator Guy Tyzack took this concept in a different direction by hiring actors and even Michael Jackson impersonators to capture the chaotic mayhem of the song.”
 

“’Bellarine Ballerina’ follows a hapless wannabe ballerina, cast off to dirty street corners as no ballet school would have him. He spends all day busking, trying to impress passers-by, but to no avail… only to receive threats and the occasional beer can to the head,” Tyzack shares. “After a pathetic day of pirouettes on street corners, he catches the eye of a mysterious lady beckoning him into a red-lit underground tunnel. With nothing to lose, he follows her in, unbeknownst to him that a motley crew of sewer-dwelling street performers and celebrity impersonators have been watching him with a keen eye, ready to initiate him into their dangerous and secretive world, deep in the bowels of the city.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard Share Their Funkiest Jam to Date

Formed back in 2010, the acclaimed, genre-defying Aussie psych rock and JOVM mainstays King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard — Stu Mackenzie (vocals/guitar), Ambrose Kenny-Smith (harmonica/vocals/keyboards), Cook Craig (guitar/vocals), Joey Walker (guitar/vocals), Lucas Skinner (bass) and Michael Cavanagh (drums)– have developed and maintained a long-held reputation for being a restlessly experimental and prolific act that has released material that has seen them zip back and forth between psych rock, heavy metal, thrash metal, thrash punk, prog rock and Turkish pop.

In 2022, the Aussie JOVM mainstays have added two more albums to their rapidly growing catalog, Omnium Gatherum and Butterfly 3001. Continuing upon their wild prolificacy, the Gizz will be releasing three more new albums in October: Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava, which will drop first on October 7, 2022; Laminated Denim, which will drop on October 12, 2022, unconventionally a Wednesday; and lastly, Changes, their fifth album on October 28, 2022. Coincidentally, all of this will be happening when the Gizz will be embarking on a North American tour that will see the band playing some of their largest venues to date, including three shows at Red Rocks Amphitheater (two of which are currently sold-out) and Forest Hills Stadium on October 21, 2022. As always, all tour dates are below.

Limited stock of Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms And Lava will be available at their Greek Theater show in Berkeley, copies of Laminated Denim will be available at Red Rocks, and Changes can be obtained at the Orpheum in New Orleans. Additionally, bundles of all three albums can be pre-ordered through the band’s homepage: https://kinggizzardandthelizardwizard.com

With an outfit that’s so wildly prolific, things often move very quickly: Before Mackenzie and company had finished work on Omnium Gatherum, they’d started sketching out the next album. Album single “The Dripping Tap” had begun as a handful of ideas and riffs that had arisen at pre-pandemic soundcheck and demos recorded during lockdown. But for Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms And Lava, the band didn’t bring in any pre-written songs or ideas; instead, they planned to completely improvise the album’s material in the studio and on the spot. “All we had prepared as we walked into the studio were these seven song titles,” says Mackenzie. “I have a list on my phone of hundreds of possible song titles. I’ll never use most of them, but they’re words and phrases I feel could be digested into King Gizzard-world.”

Mackenzie selected seven titles from this exhaustive list that he felt “had a vibe” and then attached a beats-per-minute value to each one. Each song would also follow one of the seven modes of the major scale: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydina, Aeolian and Locrian. Over a week-long period, the band recorded hours and hours of jam, dedicating a day to each mode and BMP. “Naturally, each day’s jams had a different flavor, because each day was in a different scale and a different BPM,” Mackenzie says. “We’d walk into the studio, set everything up, get a rough tempo going and just jam. No preconceived ideas at all, no concepts, no songs. We’d jam for maybe 45 minutes, and then all swap instruments and start again.”

The band ended each day with four-to five hours of new jams in the can. Mackenzie auditioned those jams after the sessions were done, stiching them together into the songs that would comprise their 21st — 21st! — album, Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms And Lava, a mnemonic for the modes employed in the material’s composition and recording.

Having assembled full working compositions from those jam sessions, Mackenzie and company then began overdubbing flute, organ, percussion and extra guitar over the top. The lyrics were a group effort. “We had an editable Google Sheet that we were all working on,” says Mackenzie. “Most of the guys in the band wrote a lot of the lyrics, and it was my job to arrange it all and piece it together.” The end result off this wildly experimental creative process is reportedly one of the densest, most unpredictable statements from a band, whose work always rockets back and forth in unexpected angles — and accompanied by a wealth of subtext and theorems behind it.

Clocking in at a little over 10 minutes, “Ice V,” IDPLML’s latest single is centered around a tight, shuffling and relentless Afrobeat-like groove, wah wah-drenched guitars, fluttering flute, twinkling Rhodes paired with Mackenzie’s imitable delivery. While arguably being the grooviest track I’ve heard from the Gizz in some time, it also features some of the most infectious hooks as well.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: GIFT Shares Ethereal “Feather”

Brooklyn-based psych rock quintet GIFT — TJ Freda, Jessica Gurewitz, Kallan Campbell, Justin Hrabovsky and Cooper Naess — have developed and honed an uncanny knack for crafting soundscapes that are simultaneously turbulent and gorgeous. As a band, they share the quest of the perfect sound rooted in harmony during times of tumult and radical openness. Their overall approach is a desire to live in the moment. In fact, live they’ve created a live experience that sees them pushing their material in wildly improvisatory directions — and as a result, they’ve been selling out shows in Brooklyn, through word of mouth. (I recently saw them open for Frankie and The Witch Fingers a couple of weeks ago, and the Brooklyn-based outfit really blew me — and the entire crowd — away.)

Dedstrange Records, a new label co-founded by A Place to Bury Strangers’ and Death by Audio’s Oliver Ackermann and Kepler Events‘ Steven Matrick recently signed GIFT and will be releasing their full-length debut Momentary Presence on October 14, 2022. Inspired by Ram Dass’ 1971 spiritual guide and countercultural landmark Be Here Now, Momentary Presence is a meditation on working through the anxiety and self-doubt that we all, at some point or another, carry. Specifically conceived, written and recorded with the idea of a full-length album being a fully contained work of art, the songs on Momentary Presence reportedly tease something seismic coming around the corner, while featuring dense layered productions that feel and sound self-assured, complete, definitive and impermeable. This is rooted in the band’s belief that each moment has richness, complexity and singularity. And once it’s gone, it can’t be recaptured or repeated.

The album asks the listener several key questions: Can you truly be present? Can you open yourself up and appreciate life in its fullness — the ugliness and confusion, as well as the beauty and joy? The members of GIFT believe that the listener can. And their full-length debut is a chronicle of that chase, and a celebration of the eternal now. 

Last month, I wrote about the album’s first single, “Gumball Garden,” a towering ripper centered around an expansive and densely layered arrangement featuring scorching guitar pyrotechnics, fuzzy power chords, glistening synth arpeggios, thunderous drumming and a relentless motorik groove paired with rousingly anthemic hooks and Freda’s gentle cooing. Sonically, “Gumball Garden” brings Join the Dots-era TOY, Minami Deutsch, Kikagaku Moyo, JOVM mainstays No Swoon and others to mind — but with a swaggering, self-assuredness. 

“I wrote this song way before most people knew what the word pandemic meant,” GIFT’s TJ Freda says. ““I had a dream in late 2019 where I woke up one day and there was nobody on earth. I was walking around looking for any forms of life to no avail. It was sad but also strangely peaceful. When the pandemic happened, this song took on a whole new meaning. We did wake up one day and the streets were empty. Everyone had gone away. This song is about finding peace in solitude.”
 

“Feather,” Momentary Presence‘s second and latest single is a slow-burning and contemplative song with painterly textures featuring glistening synth arpeggios, skittering, metronomic beats paired with Freda’s ethereal cooing, a soaring hook and a blazing guitar solo. While simultaneously evoking both a feather floating in the breeze, Autobahn-era Kraftwerk and The Pleasure Principle-era Gary Numan, the song was written by the band’s TJ Freda the morning after waking from a lucid dream.

“This is one of the most personal songs on the record,” says Freda. “One night I connected with a loved one in a dream, except I was in their mind. I was standing right in front of them and kept trying to call to them but the world in this dream was too loud and noisy. They couldn’t see or hear me. ‘Feather’ is about trying to help someone who can’t be helped, but in the end you accept them for who they are and love them no matter what.” 

Directed by Dylan Brannigan and featuring animation by the band’s TJ Freda, the accompanying video is a series of surrealistic yet lucid fever dream-like vignettes rendered in hazy, saturated VHS-like hues.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 79th Birthday, Roger Waters!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Roger Water’s 79th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Post-Apocalyptic World of The Church’s “The Hypnogogue”

Founded back in 1980, the Sydney-based ARIA Hall of Fame inductees The Church — currently founder member Steve Kilbey (vocals, bass, guitar); longtime collaborator and producer Tim Powles (drums), who joined the band in 1994 and has contributed to 17 albums; Ian Haug (guitar), a former member of Aussie rock outfit Powderfinger, who joined the band in 2013; multi-instrumentalist Jeffery Cain, a former member of Remy Zero and touring member of the band, who joined the band full-time after Peter Koppes left the band in early 2020; and their newest member, Ashley Naylor (guitar), a long-time member of Paul Kelly’s touring band and one of Australia’s most respected guitarists — was initially associated with their hometown’s New Wave, neo-psychedelic and indie rock scenes. But they became increasingly associated with dream pop and post-rock as their material took on slower tempos and surreal, shimmering soundscapes paired with their now, long-held reputation for an uncompromising approach to both their songwriting and sound.

1981’s full-length debut Of Skins and Hearts, was a commercial and critical success thanks in part to the success of their first radio hit, “The Unguarded Moment.” And as a result, the legendary Aussie outfit was signed to major labels in Australia, Europe and The States. However, their American label was dissatisfied with their sophomore album and dropped the band without releasing it in the States.

Although being dropped from their American label managed to slow down some of the international momentum surrounding the band a bit, 1988’s Starfish managed to be a smash hit, thanks to their only US Top 40 hit, “Under the Milky Way.” “Under the Milky Way,” received attention once again with its appearance in 2001’s cult-favorited film Donnie Darko.

Despite the fact that since the release of Starfish, mainstream success has been elusive, The Church have developed a devoted, international cult following while managing to be incredibly prolific. In fact, the band’s 25th album, 2017’s Man Woman Life Death Infinity was released to critical praise from the likes of PopMatters, who called the album “a 21st-century masterpiece, a bright beam of light amid a generic musical landscape, and truly one of the Church’s greatest releases.”

The highly-anticipated follow-up to 2017’s Man Woman Life Death Infinity — and their 26th album — is planned for an early 2023 release through Communicating Vessels/Unorthodox. The forthcoming album’s first single “The Hypnogogue” is an expansive and brooding track centered around the band’s unique swirling and textured guitar-driven sound paired with Kilbey’s imitable delivery and a contemporary sensibility heightened by a mix from Darrell Thorpe.

“‘The Hypnogogue’ is set in 2054… a dystopian and broken down future,” The Church’s Steve Kilbey explains. “Invented by Sun Kim Jong, a North Korean scientist and occult dabbler, it is a machine and a process that pulls music straight of dreams.”

“The song is about Eros Zeta the biggest rock star of 2054 who has traveled from his home in Antarctica (against his manager’s advice) to use the Hypnogogue to help him revive his flagging fortunes,” Kilbey continues, fleshing out the song’s sci-fi storyline. “In the midst of the toxic process, he also falls in love with Sun Kim and it all ends tragically (of course…as these thing often do).”

Directed by Aussie filmmaker Clint Lewis and starring Michael Coward and Emilia Eau, the accompanying, cinematic video for “The Hypnogogue” is set a rainy, neon-drenched retro-futuristic world that feels inspired by 80s dystopian sci-fi — in particular Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys. But the video also manages to faithfully capture the essence of the song’s storyline. “I gave the director a lot of input into this video but he took my ideas and ran with them and came up with a fair bit of stuff I never envisaged,” Kilbey says. “The Church appear on screens in the Hypnogogue as workers in the system, translating the dreams of users into real time music.  I’m very happy with the way it all turned out. It’d be hard to get a better result!”