Say Psych: Premiere: Spindrift – Songs from the Ancient Age


Here at BSM we’ve been big fans of Spindrift for some time, so it really is an honour to bring you the premiere of their new album Songs from the Ancient Age, which is to be released on Little Cloud Records next month.

Songs from the Ancient Age covers the bands move from East to West Coast USA (Delaware to LA) between 1999-2004. It marks a transference of styles from psychedelic pop, electro funk and space rock to garage rock and ethereal experimentation captured a la ‘Adavan/Diazepam’ then adds in the staple ‘Red Reflection; which signifies the crossroads to their now echoing Western twang.

It’s quite evident a lot of travelling was being done at the turn of the century as almost every song was recorded between coasts at one time or another. The oldest tracks, ‘Inhuman Behaviour’ and ‘Behind the Church’ were written in 2000 and recorded in Wilmington right before Kirpatrick and crew left to become inspired by the Western Frontier in 2001. ‘Diamonds’ and ‘Want Me’ were recorded in Las Vegas in Kirpatrick’s four-track cassette recorder while the band was to/fro working with original drummer Z. Miles Masterson. Dean Carter classic ‘Midnight Sun’ was recorded whilst Kirpatrick and bass player Joe ‘Party Chango’ Baluta did an East Coast tour with the original line-up at Joe Castro’s studio in Newark. Keys player Jay Caddle lent a hand as well as their new infamous LA guitarist Bobby Bones on slide guitar.

Realistically, at the time of these recordings, the future of the band was pretty uncertain until Kirpatrick began collaborating with members of The Brian Jonestown Massacre to eventually form the soundtrack to the Spaghetti Western homage The Legend of God’s Gun, released in 2008 on Teepee Records. Still, the band was gigging back and forth from Delaware and New York City to LA where they had the opportunity to support Sky Saxon’s Seeds, which became an obvious inspiration and Dexy Valentine (Magic Wands) performed live with the band as well as adding vocals on ‘Red Reflection’ and ‘Some Velvet Morning’.

Pre-order here

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