The Breakdown
After a long absence, the ethereal All India Radio triumphantly return with the exquisite ‘The Unified Field’ – astonishingly their 21st album.
Their absence has much to do with member Marin Kennedy’s prolific creativity – witness in just the past couple of years the release of three albums with The Church’s Steve Kilbey (‘Jupiter 13’, ‘The Strange Life of Persephone Nimbus’ and ‘Premonition K’) as well collaborations with Gareth Koch (‘Music In The Afterlife’) and his heavy metal project Observers. Read my 2023 interview with him here.
In ‘The Unified Field’, All India Radio return with a luscious sonic sweep that takes inspiration from the world of auteur David Lynch. Martin Kennedy says of the album:
I was devastated when David Lynch died. I thought he’d live forever. Growing up in the 80s and 90s, we were spoilt for Lynch’s work. I even love his troubled version of Dune (which inspired the album cover art).
But it was Twin Peaks: The Return that unlocked a whole new realm of creativity, and I knew I wanted to record an album that not necessarily sounded like -but felt like- Twin Peaks: The Return. That meant returning to a more live sound, like our 2003 self-titled album, the first album we recorded as a fully fledged band. That album got compared a lot to Labradford (who we once supported live), Pan American and Duster. It’s a sound I’ve always loved. Slow and minimal, a little bit experimental, interspersed with Twin Peaks-esque tremolo guitars.
All India Radio capture an element of Lynchian mysterious surrealism perfectly in their pristine crystalline sound – reflective and calm, an haunting spiritualism in the multi-layered sound. Apt then, that one track is actually named ‘Crystallinity’.
In opening track ‘The Red Room’, the sound and visuals of All India Radio are a luscious and complex – Kennedy’s meticulous devotion to the entire production of his releases results in something quite celestial.
‘The Red Room’ is spacious and airy like the soundtrack to a Sergio Leone movie, but set in deep space amongst the glittering stars. The guitars are crystalline shards, the bass an ambulant pulse throbbing throughout. Referencing the album title, a haunting spoken voice – the voice of David Lynch – interweaves amongst the sonic tendrils, encompassing Kennedy’s deep obsession with a sort of art deco science fiction: retro futurism expressed in the brightest colours.
Lynch’s presence is everywhere. Kennedy says:
‘The Red Room’ isn’t about complexity or polish — it’s about mood, intuition, and raw presence, my attempt to touch that same vital spark that Lynch always reached for.
The accompanying video by Red Tape Pictures and directed by Clint Lewis is openly a nod to David Lynch: drawing in the slight distorted visions that twist and mesmerise. Featuring Annaliese McGuire, Geoffrey Vagg, Rob Bobby, Pamela Rose, Tammy Wells, Kristie Lee and Jacqui Lewis, it is a beautiful piece of cinema that matches the qualities and enigma of the music:
Both ‘Wisteria’ and Crystallinity’ are somber reflections, ambulant tracks that weave like a dream sequence, the guitars jangling and bold at times coating on an ebb of synths, the bass strikingly bold.
‘Catch The Breeze’ is a cover of the 1991 track from the mighty Slowdive, and Kennedy explains why this was chosen as All India Radio’s comeback single:
From the late 1980s to the early 90s, I lived and breathed UK shoegaze music. My band at the time was starting to get serious, and I desperately wanted that sound, particularly Slowdive’s ‘Catch The Breeze’, which for me melded ambient music, which I also loved, so perfectly with the melodic fuzzed-out bliss of shoegaze. It didn’t work out that way with my band, and only recently I asked myself – should I recreate one of my all-time favourite shoegaze songs? Why the heck not!
And we indeed are the beneficiaries of this with, All India Radio taking an already immersive and achingly beautiful song and making it even more dreamy: creating a sonic landscape that positively shimmers through the speakers and wraps itself around you in an embracing, comforting hug.
The delivery is enhanced by the glorious, ethereal vocals of Lisa Gibbs (USER, The Same Same, greenhouse) which floats across the ether above a muscular, rolling bass and the trademark crystalline layers of shimmering sound that All India Radio is known for. This version is airy and ethereal, with a psychedelic fugue and a kaleidoscope of coloured tones punctuated by the arpeggiated guitars and synth drone. The result is something that is a vivid fusion of Pink Floyd with indie shoegaze and Sigur Rós: a luminescent glowing animated dreamscape, hypnotic and mesmerising.
The track comes with a hazy enigmatic video directed by Kennedy and featuring Gibbs in an appropriately psychedelic fugue: she has a haunting presence throughout the video like a ghost singing from the ether:
‘Uplift’ is suitably, well…uplifting… with its soaring synth drone and arpeggiated guitars creating a haunting refrain, while ‘Drifting’ is filled with mysterious sonic blips and pulses that bubble throughout while subsumed by a majestic guitar splash, crystal clear and almost brittle: ethereal and beautiful.
The title track begins with an ominous dark air, a hesitant bass underpinned by mysterious sounds and noises: a perfect counterpart to something by Angelo Badalamenti. This creates an air of anticipation, almost dread, before guitars springle over like a gentle waterfall. Kennedy as ever is the king of atmosphere – creating vivid emotions from sound.
‘Everything That Exists Anywhere’ enters like a soft, cooling breeze carrying a sonic fugue: floating across the universe light and feathery as instruments enter and weave in and out, billowing like curtains. Final track ‘Water of Life’ gently leads us to the exit door, wanting more of this mysterious and ethereal world.
‘The Unified Field’ is a sonic unguent that envelops us and embraces us – a sort of aural Hygge (a Danish and Norwegian concept that embodies a feeling of cozy contentment and well-being, often achieved through simple, comforting moments). All India Radio have created something immensely beautiful, touched with a Lynchian air of mystery and yet, however celestial and alien the myriad of sounds are, the album remains a source of extreme calm and contentedness, something to be fully immersed in.
‘The Unified Field’ is out now and available to download and stream through the link above and via all the usual sites.
And if this wasn’t enough, All India Radio have also today released an accompanying album that in Kennedy’s words consists of:
Outtakes, sketches, demos and early versions from The Unified Field sessions. Some of these appeared in one form or another on my Patreon throughout the last two years and some are previously unheard.
Some times too much is never enough.
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