MASTERFUL psychedelic imprint Rocket Recordings has added another string to its bow with the signing of the hallucinatory collective The Holy Family, with an album due in July.
The band is the feverish brainchild of David J. Smith, otherwise of Guapo and Miasma & the Carousel of Headless Horses, and thus a name well appreciated by voyagers out into more esoteric sonic landscapes.
The Holy Family, the album of the same name, presents as a 13-track, double-album explosion through worlds of psychedelia, pastoral psych-folk, kosmiche and more, ever-shifting, ever-seductive.
“I guess if I had to try to put it into words, it’s my attempt at a musical interpretation of a very trippy and psychedelic murder mystery tale, or otherworldly dream/hallucination,” reflects David.
The Holy Family’s very particular aesthetic evolved naturally from initial improvisation and then sharp-eyed honing of this raw material alongside longtime friends and musical travellers from Guapo, Kavus Torabi, Emmett Elvin, Sam Warren and Michael J. York, who retreated to the countryside to get it together and allow the vision to form.
And you can watch the glorious video for a first track reveal herein: “Inward Turning Suns”, the track itself a delicious longform riot of backwards masking, chanted lyrics, flutes trilling in flight.
The accompanying animation was created by by Mike Bourne, who explains: “I created, animated, and shot the video entirely in 3D then deliberately ‘degraded’ it in post, evoking the 2D cel animation of films like Ralph Bakshi’s Lord Of The Rings.
“I wanted to mix that up with the distinct visual language of 70s’ folk/horror cinema and public information films like the terrifying Lonely Water and The Finishing Line.
“I really love the use of zoom lenses and pulled focus, the grainy 16mm film, the bold typography, muted colours, etc. and thought that would complement the slightly macabre lyrics.”
For the band as a whole, aesthetic inspiration comes from the magical realism of Angela Carter – whose 1991 documentary The Holy Family Album christened the new project – and the surrealist art of Dorothea Tanning. Both point at a dark and spectral brew of mushroomy excellence; a burrow into a deeper folklore of the land that still whispers its name if you listen deeply enough.
The Holy Family’s The Holy Family will be released by Rocket Recordings digitally and on vinyl on July 2nd, and may be pre-ordered right now from Bandcamp.
