Spiral Wave Nomads

Feeding Tube is often so busy its hard to keep up with the output, and this year has had such a solid roster of releases that it’s a shame to miss any. The debut from Spiral Wave Nomads proves this point nicely. The LP, a co-release with Twin Lakes Records, embraces a shimmering batch of psych-ragas that are burnt to the core. The band snags in two long-time psychedelic spool party regulars – Eric Hardiman (Burnt Hills, Century Plants) and Michael Kiefer (Myty Konkeror, More Klementines) and they continue their search for the bottomless pit of bliss that bubbles just below the acid-fried surface of a distant sun. Ambling and aching, the tracks on their eponymous debut squeeze dropout drones and square-wave boogies through a strainer to serve.

Throwing varying degrees of noise debris the listeners’ way, from cosmic dust to the kind of fuzztone flakes that get stuck in your teeth, the record doesn’t seek to salve the soul entirely, but rather to rumple, reorder, and render it before melting it into a puddle of pulses. The duo skates the edge of oblivion and anguish, feeling like they might topple either way at any time during the record. They build up a good deal of tension through chewed tin transmissions on “Wabi Sabi,” and then shave it to the bone on the languid “Floating on a Distant Haze” and closer “Patterns of Forgotten Flight.” The LP stands up nicely next to much of the Tube’s heady output this year (pairs nicely with Village of Spaces and Maxine Funke, not to mention the Fog Window LP on SFTRI I mentioned last week). If this one melts your core there’s bonus bliss to be found in the More Klementines release that just came out on Twin Lakes as well. I recommend lining those up on the turntable in tandem.

Support the artist. Buy it HERE.