Sunday, June 11, 2023

Super Orbit and the stunning hybrid psych pop spacey shapes of "The Mind's Eye"

American Robb 2:34:00 PM "The Mind's Eye", alt pop, cross generational sounds, dream pop, funk, hybrid pop, Psych pop, psych rock, R&B, soul, space soul, Super Orbit

"it's not a problem, it's not a problem today..."

It's always a wonderful thing when I hear music that makes my head explode (sort of) and my lips curl up in a quizzical smile. This is the case with "The Mind's Eye" by Northern Australia's psych rock / dream pop outfit Super Orbit. By the way, that descriptor from press notes is to the point but the band runs deeper than those 4 words. Listening to the deep sort of 70's pop down beats, the funk grooves, that alt pop wonky edges, the mild wah-wah saturations, the Syd Barrett psychedelic nerve endings, the experimental quirkiness, the absolute stunning guitar and bass mirrored moves (or is that an octoplexed guitar??) and the wildly free background vox courting the mildly shoegazed lead vox and I am thinking of a lot of cross generational / hybrid genre'd artistry.

I haven't heard a song in a long time, maybe not ever, that made me think of Portishead (circa 1993), Vanilla Fudge (circa 1969), Øresund Space Collective (circa 2011), Todd Rundgren (circa 1972) and, surprisingly, Parliament-Funkadelic (circa 1978) in one cool long drawn breath. Lovely stuff.

I have only one criticism. The song dwindles out just when a guitar lead (with a great sound) seems to be ramping up.

-Robb Donker Curtius