“It has to be done right … and that’s when the strange music starts, when you stretch your luck so far that fear becomes exhilaration and vibrates along your arms.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga.
Although I do not condone / encourage the use / misuse of drugs, that does not disdain the fact that, for many, drugs have remained a pivotal channel for artistic creation, often utilised as a tool to dilute existing perceptions of reality and induce entirely new sensitivities within the human psyche. Its important to note, drugs aren’t by any means a necessity toward inspiration / creation, however if it weren’t for the prominence of drugs within the artistic domain, a plethora notorious works would likely be markedly different today.
Quang Dinh has no reservations about his confessing loose lifestyle, and Lysergic Flaccid is no exception: the tale of a life-altering acid trip.
Albums that immediately spring to mind include, The Beatles‘ Sgt. Pepper’s, Sleep’s Dopesmoker, Spiritualized‘s Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space including even although evidently not limited to the early works of Nick Cave with The Birthday Party or Cobain with Nirvana, where heavier drugs – most notably heroin – left a palpable mark within their artistic thumbprint.
Where am I going with this?
Well, Melbourne’s QD (Quang Dinh) fits nice and snug into the latter with his latest single Lysergic Flaccid – a track directly inspired by a reckless plummet down the rabbit hole. As explained by the man QD himself: “I ate a carpet worth of acid and saw God in all her 7 dimensions and this is what she told me to write. I got to momentarily touch the toes of Nirvana before they turned into rusty tetanus nails. Then I was sucked back into this dimension and I felt so small and painfully disconnected to the human storyline. It took me 40 days and 40 nights to recover.”
From what was indisputably a crazy experience, QD clearly drew positive inspiration which later fed into his musical craft. Lysergic Flaccid is a wacky barrage of funk, rock, and most obviously psychedelic influences. The guitar licks here are somewhat jagged and howling, whilst still maintaining a distinct and rather dissonant swagger; a swagger that is undeniably toned by the tight as hell drum track.
As all the instrumentation harmoniously comes together in the bold and sluggishly emergent chorus’ I can’t help but get this desert vibe. Queens of The Stone Age would be a good reference point…there’s something about those fuzzed out guitars and that ever lurking dissonance.
Much like the title of the track is a play on words, the lyrics follow the same sort of obscure patterns; often performed with a dark/yet groovy delivery, at times resembling Marylyn Manson-esque slurs. The melody is rather catchy… it does sound oddly familiar though, I’m struggling to pin point it. Nevertheless, there’s some cool lyrical composition going on here with references to Anne Frank, Van Gogh, Edvard Munch, Albert Einstein, Allen Ginsberg, and Jesus Christ.
Lets just say QD creates some wacky imagery here, “The crocodile is coming, invading swimming pools, Annie Frank stands naked, While the sickos drool.” The lyrics are all over the place, in a good way; but hey, would you expect any different from a man who claimed to write this on the back of a trip on a ‘carpet worth of acid’?
The final product here is solid all-round effort featuring some exceptional touches, though conversely it could have been pushed farther. Nonetheless I look forward to hearing QD’s full release, which if you’re a fan of Lysergic Flaccid you should be gearing up for its imminent release.
