Leisure Birds – Tetrahedron
Psychedelia and its subdivisions is just music for taking drugs to, right? Arguments abound for both the defence and prosecution, but bear this in mind when taking a side. When was the last time someone wrote a psyche LP about settling down into workaday drudgery? Answer: it’s never been done and for good reason as, narcotic abetted or otherwise, psychedelia is pure escapism from such things. Tetrahedron, the third LP from Minneapolis four-piece Leisure Birds, thus duly obliges, expounding on the mind-expanding potential of geometry, physics and, true to the band’s last LP, 2012’s Globe Master, interstellar travel.
Accordingly then, “Patterns” opens up Tetrahedron with star-scanning synth drone, its sleepy chatter swelling to a suffocating climax. That dithering analogue synth continues on “Miner Of Light”, swirling together with deep bass pulses that stir thoughts of stop-motion nature documentaries against colourful two-sun skies. Then you have “Seven Spirals”, the most dynamic recording Leisure Birds have yet to commit to wax. Chilly, outer-rings synth work start proceedings before Jake Luck and his co-pilots, powered by rapid-fire toms and a crunching guitar part, slam down the visor to head straight down the throat of the worm hole.
Luck’s retro-futurist lyrics are reverbed to the point of mysticism throughout, as much at home on the spectral, sands-of-time title track as they are during the insistent standout “Geodesic Lines”, a track which writhes around like Goat attempting to communicate through interpretative kosmische. “reT120813”, on the other hand, creaks and wheezes with the sounds of a Bladerunner souk before the 15-minute closer “Waveforms” jams from soupy meditation to fist-clenched expression. As part one denatures in cruises a pulsing groove that blossoms with optimistic synths into an arms-wide celebration. Whichever side of the fence you find yourself on when it comes to life’s big questions it’d be a surprise if you didn’t wanna be clear headed to soak in the majesty of Leisure Birds’ answers.
Best tracks: “Geodesic Lines” and “Seven Spirals”
~Tetrahedon is out now via collaborative efforts of Moon Glyph and Jake Luck’s own Totally Gross National Product.~