Wylderness - MF Tomlinson
Arriving as a third and final glimpse into their upcoming sophomore album, Wylderness have unleashed a scintillating new shoegaze cut: “Chet Chat”. Boasting their knack for creating sprawling soundscapes and deeply textured instrumentals, Wylderness’ latest offering arrives as the band gear up to release their long-awaited second album ‘Big Plans For A Blue World’ (out 15th July, via Succulent Recordings).
Written when Marz of Wylderness experienced the full, frightening force of an earthquake while on a trip to Greece some years ago, the new track finds the singer and guitarist reflecting on what was a life-changing event and seeking to emulate the force of nature that reverberated through him that day. As Marz remembers:
“I was on the balcony of an apartment in Athens writing lyrics for this song when all of a sudden there was this enormous roar and the building started shaking. The earthquake lasted about 15 seconds but seemed like it went on forever. Everyone was fine thankfully and I wanted to write something about what had happened, but not make it too obvious and clunky, so it ended up being a bit cryptic.”
Echoing the raw sonic energy of a tectonic shift, “Chet Chat” ripples like an agitated seismic wave impacting the earth’s surface. From its sparse and seemingly tranquil beginnings, the track builds towards an immense crescendo as towering electric guitars, warped organ grindings and distorted rhythmic pulses stretch-out into a six-minute shoegaze epic that evokes the likes of DIIV, Spacemen 3 or Sonic Youth at their climactic heights.
Recorded at Giant Wafer Studios on a farm in rural Wales, and with wonky organ sounds added in by producer Rory Atwell, the enigmatic new track sees Wylderness further find themselves in their sound as they deftly forge their own cataclysmic and confident path on their second studio outing.
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London-based, Brisbane/Meanjin-born singer-songwriter MF Tomlinson returns today with news of his signing to PRAH Recordings (the Umlauts, Pozi, Group Listening) and the release of a new single "A Cloud" - the first music to be heard from from his much-anticipated second album, which will come out on PRAH early 2023.
The album’s lead single and opening track "A Cloud" is accompanied by the first part of a theatre, dance, and film work conceived, directed and choreographed by MF’s collaborator Daisy JT Smith. The album, and the film, will be unveiled piece by piece throughout the year. MF Tomlinson's return today follows his debut full length ‘Strange Time’, self-released in 2021 to critical acclaim from publications including Mojo, NME, Clash, bandcamp, Gigwise and more.
Inarguably his finest work to date as a songwriter and producer, "A Cloud" sets the scene of what’s to come. Marrying elements of 60's folk, folk-rock and psychedelia to thrilling effect - complex, dramatic, intimate, delicate and breathing, Tomlinson’s words are carried away by finger-picked guitars, double bass and soaring flutes that float effortlessly before a canopy of foreboding atmospherics and lush-turned-sinister string arrangements descend on the track with crushing weight.
A curious, dream-like snapshot into Tomlinson's psyche; "A Cloud is about how painful it is to live without your innermost desires," MF Tomlinson explains. "It is, in the same breath, about how beautiful life is despite all of its sadness, and how even the smallest moments can satisfy your spirit. It begins where Strange Time leaves off. In my apartment, from my window we move through scenes of the street, through memories and hallucinations."
Though it would seem we have come back down to earth by the song’s close, it is not the same world - drifting out of sync with reality, we find ourselves on a new trajectory that could be transcendence or a descent into madness.
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