UK-based psychedelic rockers Black Market Karma present their new single ‘In My Child Mind (E to A)’. This is the second taste of their new album ‘Aped Flair & Hijacked Ideas’. The album will be released in late September via London boutique label Flower Power Records.
This groovy laid-back single is accompanied by a video shot throughout the magical realm of Japan, wandering all around Tokyo full of child wonder and joy. Filmed by film director Louisa Pili in November 2017, this video was edited by BMK mastermind Stanley Belton, following him as he blissfully trips throughout Shibuya, Shinjuku, Harajuku, Meiji Jingu, Ueno Park, HARRY Hedgehog Cafe, Akihabara, Asakusa, Kazunoya Oiwake and Red Shoes.
Hailing from London and now residing on the South coast of England, the band are back with a colourful carousel of jingle jangle and distorted wobble, following up the 2021 long-player ‘The Technicolour Liquid Audio Machine’, a lo-fi instrumental, nostalgic, beat driven opus concocted during the 2020 lockdown.
Not long ago, the band released the lead track ‘Dead Trajectory’ with accompanying video featuring live footage filmed by Jenn Cliff-Wilcock in October 2021 during Black Market Karma’s UK tour. For additional feel-good factor, Act Cool Records also released a live session with Stanley Belton.
Their tenth album ‘Aped Flair & Hijacked Ideas’ is a loaded 11-track offering with a fluid texture of beach-soaked instrumentation. Themes range from observations of the sycophantic circles that leach from the arts, desperately trying to stay spiritually close to a geographically distant love, Japanese folklore and the deep connection between man and beast.
“I like to think of the sound of this record as Aquatica. It’s like a psychedelic carousel of syrupy melody and liquid audio. Fat, baggy, saturated bass and drums, shimmering jangly guitars, wobbling fuzz, drunken keyboards and telephonic vocals. Imagine something along the lines of The Velvet Underground and The Troggs making tunes together but underwater, performing on marine life instead of instruments and routing the whole thing through a UFO,” says Stanley Belton.
“The album’s title is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the idea that nothing is truly original. Influence is an infinite web connecting all art and I think that’s a beautiful thing that should be embraced. I often see people getting too hung up on the pursuit of some kind of idea of total originality that doesn’t exist. It’s all in the blend.”
With broader flavours of psychedelia, fuzzed out tones and thumping grooves, Black Market Karma’s thick and colourful sound is shaped by the use of a lot of vintage equipment. Rooted in 60’s guitar and pop music, other influences range from folk and blues through to lo-fi electronica, traditional Indian music, shoegaze, hip hop, soul and Motown.
To date, the band has released nine albums, eight of which were released between 2012 and 2016 and entirely written, performed, recorded and produced by multi-instrumentalist Stanley Belton while living in London at the band’s own ‘Cocoon’ studio. On the new album, Stan has broken trend of doing everything himself by co-writing and performing two tracks on the album (‘Kong’ and ‘A Crying Shame’) together with his brother Finley Belton.
More recently, Stan has been working on collaborations with Pete Kember (a.k.a. Sonic Boom) of Spacemen 3, Joakim Ahlund of Cesars & Les Big Byrd, Tess Parks and The Underground Youth.
As of September 14, ‘In My Child Mind (E to A)’ will be available everywhere digitally, including Apple Music and Spotify. The ‘Aped Flair & Hijacked Ideas’ LP will be released on September 29. A double album featuring 180-gram coloured vinyl with a gatefold sleeve, it can be pre-ordered on vinyl at https://bit.ly/3QNCBjE and as a digital download via Bandcamp.
-Official bio
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