TOTING a very fine line in dusty, Latin American/goth/soundtrack-informed desert rock and coming atcha out of Tucson, Arizona, men in black XIXA are ready to roll out the follow-up to their fine 2016 LP, Bloodline.
It’s called Genesis, it’s suited and booted and ready for release on February 19th next year; but shield your eyes against that blinding noonday sun and you’ll see a telltale plume of dust kicking up as the first song to drop from the album, “Genesis of Gaea”, approaches. It’s available right now via your preferred listening service; and what’s more, we’ve embedded the video below, full of finely wrought symbolism.
The concepts and iconography come courtesy of fellow Tucsonian artist, Daniel Martin Diaz.
The core illustration, entitled The Metaphysical Universe, mixes Diaz’s signature elements of Christian mythology, renewal and ascension, astronomy and anatomy, secret masonic symbols, a fair dose of hocus-pocus and war-of-the-worlds science fiction into a style all his own – the perfect representation of the themes explored on Genesis.
And what a fusion of a tune “Genesis Of Gaea” ’tis; you’ll be getting The Gun Club, Morricone, Calexico, southern Pebbles garage punk …
“I think this song is very telling and representative of the record as a whole,” sayss co-frontman Gabriel Sullivan.
“Blending psychedelic elements and space like soundscapes with acoustic instruments very much rooted in the earth, built around the very Genesis, which is the songwriting, the melody.”
“The song has a sort of latent uneasiness, a darkness to contrast the melodic passages” adds co-bandleader and songwriter Brian Lopez.
“The track also delves into the Art of Deception as a means to sow disorder and chaos, the age old battle of good and evil; that’s a thematic cloud throughout the entire album and surely a relevant topic in today’s current affairs.”
Sullivan adds:“It all is surely very spiritual what we are doing here … a mashup of very different cultures and concepts.
“That’s the great thing about living in a cultural melting pot and one of the somehow very American things we’d be well off considering more positively.”
XIXA’s Genesis will be released on Jullian Records/The Orchard on February 19th, 2021, and is available for pre-order now.
