‘The Spiral Arm’ out now on All Saints Records
Dallas Acid is a synth-heavy dreampop trio from Austin, Texas. Following previous releases on Flying Moonlight and Olde English Spelling Bee, they’ve join a roster that includes Brian Eno, Harold Budd and Laraaji (who the band previously collaborated with on 2018’s ‘Arrive Without Leaving’ album) on All Saints Records, who in recent years have predominantly focused on issuing new editions of some of their much-loved catalogue.
Of their new video they tell us; “’Emaljets Hav’ translates to “The Enamel Sea” in English. It is a cautionary tale about the accumulation of toxic plastics, chemicals, and other pollutants being dumped into our planet’s waters. The song describes the vulnerability of the environment’s beauty and the billions of lives that are at stake once these waters become permanently altered into an unrecognisable substance, incapable of sustaining any form of life on planet Earth.
It was filmed by Linda Beecroft and edited by Dallas Acid. We filmed it in Snoqualmie Falls (it’s the water fall featured in Twin peaks by the fictional Great Northern Hotel). We filmed it on a day off our last west coast tour!”
The sky-gazing wonder of Linda Beecroft’s vocals on the title track of ‘The Spiral Arm’ recall the breathy intimacy of Mazzy Star, yet draped with almost symphonic banks of synthesizers blinking into infinity, expertly operated by Christian Havins and Michael Gerner, redolent of the deepest end of classic kosmische music. Other tracks such as the instrumental ‘Circuit Jungle’ touch upon the Fourth World experiments of Jon Hassell with a mixture of moog abstractions and FX-drenched acoustic percussion. At other points they touch upon the rain-drenched soundtracks of Vangelis and other more mysterious, electronic arthouse film scores. The band descirbe the creation of the album as follows:
“’The Spiral Arm’ originally began as a live performance at the Scobee Planetarium in San Antonio – a soundtrack meant to accompany a visual journey through the cosmos. When we took the pieces out on the road over the next few months, these primarily improvisational ambient works evolved into the more traditionally-structured songs you hear on the album. We combined the more straightforward, melodic approach to songwriting we took on ‘Spa Hunter’, with the more lavish orchestrations and experimental environments of ‘Original Soundtrack’.
‘The Spiral Arm’ still functions as an auditory transport for interstellar adventure, but it’s focus is pointed firmly back to the human experience on planet Earth: celebrating love and life, overcoming gut-wrenching tragedy, and coping with the increasingly bizarre, science-fiction reality we face as a species every day. We hope the listener finds beauty, courage, inspiration, and at least some sense of comfort and shelter from the storm.”
Live:
Sunday 10 November
@ Levitation Festival – Mohawk, Austin, Texas
with John Cale, Kurt Vile, The Black Angels and more
Pre-Order album here
Album track-list:
- ‘The Spiral Arm’
2. ‘Vacker’
3. ‘Circuit Jungle’
4. ‘Zavana’
5. ‘I Fågelns Sång’
6. ‘Silk Rain’
7. ‘Emaljets Hav’
