Melbourne’s finest sonic architects BADGERS are back with another fine example of luscious shoegaze dream pop in their new single ‘Bad Dreams’, and we are honoured to premiere their new video for this rich and euphoric track.
BADGERS (who we last met way back in 2020 with their brilliant single ‘Why Am I Your Only Friend?’) have spent the past couple of years coming in and out of lockdown in Melbourne and suffering the vicissitudes of the COVID era, but the track heralds a fine and shining dawn.
Shimmering, layered guitars gambol in the ether with a vibrant, sparkling pace and a wandering bass spine, while layers of dreamy vocals with antithetically darker themes – you never see the other side of me – etch and colour the horizon. This is a dynamic, euphoric track with a gospel, choral tinge and energising whoops and calls in the distance. It is a veritable aural onslaught of the most satisfying kind: a giddy whirlybird of a track.
The mesmerising new video captures the sonic chaos and the inherent joy in the shimmering sounds – the band performing through a trippy psychedelic lense in a fairground whirl, and singer/guitarist Michael Badger spinning around like some gospel preacher entreating and hypnotising the audience. The day-glo colours and double vision recording adds to something quite enchanting and transfixing with a psychedelic overlay:
It is a pleasure indeed to welcome BADGERS back, and with such a sonic blast. ‘Bad Dreams’ is out through UK’s Strong Island Recordings and available through all the usual download/streaming sites and here.
Badgers is fronted by Michael Badger who has worked extensively with fellow Melbourne juggernauts King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard on the likes of modern-classics of theirs such as ‘I’m In Your Mind Fuzz’ and Nonagon Infinity’ as well as the scuzz-punk-riot of a band Amyl & The Sniffers.
