“Acolyte” by I Think Like Midnight

Philadelphia instrumental 4 piece I Think Like Midnight have a new album out in a few weeks. “This Land is Your Mind” is jam-packed with shimmering and often deliciously psychedelic guitar-driven soundtracks to road-trips way out West of Weirdsville – real or imagined. Here’s “Acolyte”:

The album takes in many moods from surf twang to motorik psychedelia and even instrumental power pop. It often travels similar cosmic trails to the instrumentals of New Zealand’s David Kilgour & The Heavy Eights, and also Australian guitarist Cam Butler. So, if you like those artists or if you like what’s on offer here on “Acolyte”, take the plunge and get the album. You won’t be disappointed.

The recording and sound is rich and colourful, and the ensemble playing by the band balances technical skill with feeling, bringing the arrangements alive. And sometimes those arrangements provide imaginative surprises from additional instruments – keyboards and vibraphone – to add even more layers to the sonic variety and atmosphere.

Here’s another song, called “Tuned Mass Damper”, in video form:

‘The Really Loud One’ by Astro Children

Millie of Astro Children plays ‘The Really Loud One’ at The Crown Hotel 2012. Photo by Roger Grauwmeijer http://www.rokpx.com

As you will know by now, Sunday tradition is for Astro Children ‘Proteus’ album to be played loud (I have the house to myself for a few hours and it’s fun loud).

But today here’s an instrumental interlude called ‘The Really Loud One’ from the first Astro Children EP which was called ‘Lick My Spaceship’ and released on a limited CDR by The Attic in 2012.

It’s a bit of an Astro Children tradition for songs to have explanatory titles. ‘The Really Loud One’ is, in places, fairly noisy. But it also has quiet bits and ebbs & flows. To enjoy it fully though you have to imagine, at about 1 minute 50 seconds, Millie falling to the floor & writhing around on her back while playing, with her head inside Isaac’s bass drum as the rest of the song works itself out.

It sounds better & better the louder you play it. There’s another Dunedin music tradition to the jangling guitar one, involving massive distorted noise sculptures. It started arguably with Snapper and continued through High Dependency Unit (HDU). The teen rebellion music created by Astro Children on ‘Lick My Spaceship’ unknowingly combined their own re-filtered variation on elements of two traditions in their own non-traditional ‘space-gaze’ style. A style since expanded upon brilliantly in their latest release ‘Proteus’.

Astro Children EP art by Robbie Motion