Far out man, Australian psychedelic music is, like, really going off right now. Another week, another wicked homegrown band bravely exploring the psychedelic frontier for the good of humankind. This time, we bring you Tasmanian psych-pop six-piece, Violet Swells.
Launching into the cosmos this year, rocketeer Ben Simms began his sonic exploration within his Hobart bedroom. Under the influence of Brian Wilson, Syd Barrett and film scores, he experimented with melodies, threw down a few jams, recruited some mates to help play them live and BOOM, emerging from Simms’ bedroom was a mighty collision of peace, love and planets – their debut EP The Soft Focus.
Violet Swells, straight outta Tasmania, have put out a mad decent EP – listen to the The Soft Focus and take in one more Aussie psychedelic band.
Rocketing to the stars, their first track Into The Ether, swirls along with a 60s guitar riff and vocal harmonies akin to those found on The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds. Fuzz guitars then be wild in the cosmic odyssey that is debut single, Jupiter’s Garden. A solar breeze of percussion and mellotron floats in and takes us up, up and away before the psychedelic meteor explodes into a million billion zillion pieces.
Third track, Miracles Of A Clockwork Kingdom, sounds as mysteriously awesome as its name suggests. A sonic collision of synthesisers, strings, delay and fuzz, it takes us to a strange symphonic realm. But clocking in at just over two and a half minutes, it all ends too soon and leaves you wishing your time in the Clockwork Kingdom could be longer.
Psych-pop closer, The Soft Focus, then carries you on a lovely six and a half minute trip. Experimenting with all sorts of weird and wonderful distorted sounds, this one’s true to Barrett era Floyd.
Which gets me thinking, in a time when every emerging psychedelic band wants to be Tame Impala’s little brother, I feel like frontman Simms is really steering his ship towards their own flavour of synth-pop psychedelia, and this makes me pretty excited. Which planet or moon or galaxy will they take us to next?
The sextet’s next show(s) will be on the 11th of July in Melbourne, playing both The Catfish and Bar Open that same night.
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