The early sessions for The August List’s forthcoming EP Sun Pinned on Ghost Sky started out during the pandemic and the band’s normal sound of acoustic drone folk didn’t fit with a world that had seemingly gone mad. As singer Martin Child says, “if the world is turning into a crackling bin fire with folks shouting at each other over the top of it, they may as well get loud, get psyched and find lots of effects pedals that sound like their brains!”
That psyched-out direction started with this track, ‘The Duplex Phase’, which grinds into life like planets colliding, with a great impact of sounds before a grainy guitar punches through. Given the opening lines are “Woke up happy on a Thursday That’s what the blister pack told me”, it’s perfect that the song has a sense of torpor with the quicksand pull of the chords and the slow procession up a staircase designed by M.C. Escher. There were a couple of influences on this song including the “barely in control” sound of Neil Young and Crazy Horse with lyrics inspired by Alan Resnick’s short film This House Has People In It, where security cameras in a family home witness the daughter phasing through the kitchen floor. The EP’s title creeps into this song, a sun pinned on a ghost sky, a little bit of hope in the darkness; also the inspiration for the title of the upcoming EP.
The August List have given Joyzine readers the chance to see the video before anyone else. It mixes jump cuts of a phasing woman (played by Kaia) sitting on the floor of her front room with singers Martin and Kerraleigh Child appearing on the television while a cat-headed girl (Margot) and a real cat (Chunky) blip in and out, sometimes real and sometimes made of TV static. The video was filmed and edited by Future Human Design Co.
The power of the track is epic and, having sneaked a listen of the EP, it brings a collage of monumental sounds to the party. Imagine the ghost of Phil Spector using the Large Hadron Collider as a spring reverb.
Sun Pinned on Ghost Sky is released on 7 November and the band will be playing live to promote it.
The August List Tour – Ticket Links
3rd November – Manchester, Night & Day Café
6th November – Oxford, Jericho Tavern
20th November – London, Servants Jazz Quarters
22nd November – Oxford, Truck Store (In-store duo show)
The August List: Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram | YouTube
Introduction by Paul F Cook
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