Starscape by Sungod

"The latest kosmische feast from Texan psychedelic voyagers Sungod was recorded across a series of 2014 to 2016 sessions in Austin but its interstellar dynamics are such that temporal categorization feels irrelevant; this is music untethered from time, spanning the soil to the stars. Starscape presents an omnivore’s delight of ceremonial drone, rippling synths, cosmic prog, galactic drift, and rainbow disco – sometimes all in the same track. Theirs is a voracious, maximalist chemistry, overflowing with enough ideas, instruments, color, and chaos to seed a dozen different projects. Co-founder Braden Balentine admits as much, describing the album as 'a purposefully adventurous, ambitious, mess of a record.' Messes, of course, are matters of perspective; to a Sungod, all things must come to pass.

For this collection Balentine and fellow co-founder Michael C. Sharp were joined by flutist Kristine Reaume and pianist / organist Nick Lombard, diversifying their already rich palette. Opener “Valley of Wonder” takes cues from the Pelt school of devotional resonance: gongs, wind, strings, and singing bowls float like smoke on a twilit mesa, summoning some great beyond. Then the ascension begins, arcing through a multi-movement aurora borealis (“Cahokia,” “Find Your Energy,” “Starscape,” “White Light / E.S.P.”) of pulsing electronics, soaring leads, and motorik rhythm in a tunnel of fractal atmospherics. Hints of 90’s trance, chill out, and big room acid flicker in the stratosphere but ultimately Sungod’s trajectory is too restless for effective mapping.

This is music of alien moons and rogue comets, of primordial dawns and vortex dance floors, alternately abstract and anthemic. A 10-track odyssey of expansion and escape, from molecular inner space to the edges of the dreamable universe."

-Britt Brown (Not Not Fun Records)

"A bullet train through multiple dimensions." -Lost in a Sea of Sound

"...expansive, kosmische-inspired zoners that aim for the stars." -The FFFoxy Podcast

"...rich, exciting, and thoughtful." -The Daily Vault

"...the best psychedelic record of 2023." -CVLT Nation

"...all wild, all the time." -Foxy Digitalis

"...rips hard." -Tabs Out Cassette Podcast

"...kaleidoscopic wonders." -Beats Per Minute

Artwork by Jaime Zuverza
https://www.zuverza.com/

Mastered by Angel Marcloid
https://www.angelhairaudio.com/

Tape photos by Emily Dodson

Est. 2010

"Your decency remains unimpaired, your virility unharmed, your person is free from any degrading submission, but in your hand is a tambourine." -Seneca

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