Flaming Lips:
7 Skies H3:
Warner Music:
CD/DD:
Out Now:
★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Originally recorded in 2011 and issued as a 24-hour long jam on a USB stick, Flaming Lips have seen fit to see sense and edit the whole thing down to 50 minutes for a RSD 2014 release and subsequent online stream and CD issue. In the realms of Zaireeka and just about as mind-mangling, Wayne Coyne's ever-expanding headspace knows no bounds as he steers his charges through a maze of blurry psychedelia and painfully unsettling, mostly-instrumental, brain-phonics that could well turn out to be the soundtrack for the end of days.
The first piece is subtitled Can't Shut Down My Head and even after listening to the abridged version, you'll know why. Coyne sings in his trademark fragile murmur, a sad melody fills the spaces behind him and tears roll down (probably).
Things then take a turn for the dramatic on Battling Voices From Beyond, a sort of crazed variation on a battle-theme from some 1950's sci-fi b-movie where cymbals are crashed and voices build into a crescendo without relenting.
As a complete listen, you'll be rewarded with the gripping thriller In A Dream, the foreboding atonal musique-concrete of Metamorphosis and the rather alarming scream-fest that is, literally, a Riot In My Brain. After queuing in a Post Office for 30 minutes or encountering London's public transport system, this full-on cacophony might be what you need to blanch the soul and unleash pent-up aggression, without landing yourself in clink.
The prettiest pieces conclude this set - another variant on the title-track flows gorgeously and seamlessly into the blissful melancholic finale Can't Let It Go. Race For The Prize it isn't but if you dig the Lips in sparked-out plaintive mode, you'll need your spade for this one. A roller-coaster journey for sure but since when have Flaming Lips' fairground rides been easy or dull - this certainly isn't.
7 Skies H3:
Warner Music:
CD/DD:
Out Now:
★★★★★★★☆☆☆
The first piece is subtitled Can't Shut Down My Head and even after listening to the abridged version, you'll know why. Coyne sings in his trademark fragile murmur, a sad melody fills the spaces behind him and tears roll down (probably).
Things then take a turn for the dramatic on Battling Voices From Beyond, a sort of crazed variation on a battle-theme from some 1950's sci-fi b-movie where cymbals are crashed and voices build into a crescendo without relenting.
As a complete listen, you'll be rewarded with the gripping thriller In A Dream, the foreboding atonal musique-concrete of Metamorphosis and the rather alarming scream-fest that is, literally, a Riot In My Brain. After queuing in a Post Office for 30 minutes or encountering London's public transport system, this full-on cacophony might be what you need to blanch the soul and unleash pent-up aggression, without landing yourself in clink.
The prettiest pieces conclude this set - another variant on the title-track flows gorgeously and seamlessly into the blissful melancholic finale Can't Let It Go. Race For The Prize it isn't but if you dig the Lips in sparked-out plaintive mode, you'll need your spade for this one. A roller-coaster journey for sure but since when have Flaming Lips' fairground rides been easy or dull - this certainly isn't.