AXIS: SOVA began, as many excellent bands do, as a means to a gigging end (see similarly colonised TEKE::TEKE over at Kill Rock Stars, for example).
Brett, the Sova of the equation, was watching his previous outfit Mass Shivers enter its death throes – we’re talking back in 2009 here; and having been offered an opening slot supporting fellow Chicagoans Mantis, decided he to go it alone, and opened playing one continuous freakily psych solo piece.
So was Axis: Sova born, and how it stayed a year or three; before eventually the psychedelic momentum led to a slipstream that picked up other members.
(The Axis part of the title? It comes from an obsession with the Hendrix album, Axis: Bold As Love, natch).
Hooking up with Ty Segall really got the wheels rollin’, LPs followed; and into ’21, they’re gonna be offering us the Fractal EP digitally via God? Records; a first delish track from which hath escaped their clutches, the parenthetical psych scour of “(Don’t Wanna Have That) Dream” – go dive into the lo-fi construction site video for that below.
It’s a really curious tune, that drum machine adding a wonky, clicky neo-bossa bedrock over which gentle vocals caress – though soothing isn’t really le mot juste, since they’re resisting the seductions of sleep and all the imagery that it’ll bring – and when that guitar kicks in, so swooningly acid, and razes all before it in overdriven melody, howling and scorching like Khruangbin on Owsley acid – then you know we’ve got it all going on.
Elsewhere on Fractal we’re gonna be offered a Cluster cover, in the shape of “Caramel”; and “Dying To Meet You,” a longform, jam from the vault dusted down and dubbed out. Nice.
Axis: Sova’s Fractal is out May 7th on God? Records; you can order yours from Bandcamp.
Connect with Axis: Sova on Facebook, Instagram, Bandcamp and Drag City.
