Following a huge tour with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club last month and currently in the midst of a residency in LA, Victorian four-piece Stonefield have today released their third studio LP, Far From Earth, the latest addition to their ever-growing catalogue and a veritable psych-prog gem, is out now on Flightless Records.
In celebration of the release, the band have also announced an extensive national Australian tour in May and June which will include stops in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth as well as Belgrave, Castlemaine, Newcastle and Wollongong. Dates and details below.
Their second full-length LP As Above, So Below (2016) firmly established Stonefield as one of the key players in the current wave of Australian psych-rock, but Far From Earth – the bands’ Flightless debut – sees the band’s sound enter a whole new spectrum. With Black Mountain’s Stephen McBean at the production helm, first single and album opener ‘Delusion’ demonstrates a shift from the hardened psych pop of earlier records toward more prog and heavy metal. The title track ‘Far From Earth’ extrapolates on this, as a bass drum pulses between blurry synth lines and circular guitar riffs.
‘In The Eve’ reveals a silkier side to drummer/singer Amy’s trademark vocals before launching into a driving and unabashedly hooky chorus. ‘Visions’ enters with a striding dancefloor-esque rhythm section, the lyrics exposing the album’s overarching theme of making sense of yourself in your own mind as well as in the universe/multiverse. ‘Together’ is a tender moment – “Time goes slowly, moves so gently, when we are as one…lover, lover” – which morphs into a Ravi Shankar-era Beatles sound on ‘Broken Stone’. Tenderness is fleeting, however, as ‘Through The Storm’propels the listener right back in to Sabbath territory and ‘In My Head’ continues the dark, sludgy journey. ‘Sleepyhead’ is a proggy lullaby, with the instrumental closer ‘Celestial Spaces’ making it damn hard for listeners to come down from this trip through the Stonefield stratosphere.
TOUR DATES
Fri 18th May – Sooki Lounge, Belgrave
Sat 19th May – Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine
Thu 24th May – Cambridge, Newcastle
Fri 25th May – OAF, Sydney
Sat 26th May – Unibar, Wollongong
Fri 1st June – The Foundry, Brisbane
Sat 2nd June – Mo’s Desert Clubhouse, Gold Coast
Fri 8th June – Jack Rabbit Slims, Perth
Sat 9th June – Jive, Adelaide
Sat 16th June – The Tote, Melbourne