UK Psych cadets Floral Image release new single 'The Score' - debut album 'Gone Down Meadowland' due April 25th via Fuzz Club
UK PYSCH CADETS FLORAL IMAGE RETURN WITH NEW SINGLE ‘THE SCORE’
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE AND STREAM HERE
DEBUT ALBUM ‘GONE DOWN MEADOWLAND’ TO BE RELEASED APRIL 25TH VIA FUZZ CLUB
PRE-ORDER THE ALBUM HERE
MAY UK/EU ALBUM TOUR CONFIRMED
Gone Down Meadowland is the much-anticipated debut album release from Norwich, UK psych outfit Floral Image, due for release April 25th via the renowned Fuzz Club label.
Ahead of the release, the band are previewing the album with a new single tantalisingly titled ‘The Score’. Under-pinned with an infectiously metronomic bass and drum groove, the song’s beautiful melody floats lazily on top, slowly ebbing into your subconscious.
“The Score appeared scarily fully formed in a dream whilst barely sleeping in the Birmingham Central Travelodge after a gig we played there. Instantly upon waking at 7am I scuttled past the bodies on the floor to flesh it out as a song in the front seat of our tour van on the 12-string guitar. God bless the subconscious…this time,” explains vocalist and guitarist Fergus Nolan.
For the video, Floral Image wanted to get away from the digital nightmare of previous single ‘Burning 305’ for something animated that draws from a more analogue pool of inspiration through a natural environment.
“It is a love letter to more humble mediums, in which the hand of the maker can be seen in each cell of animation. It is homage to animation from Ghibli to more obscure eastern European shorts. It is not all sunshine and verdant meadows however; around the meandering growth of the central fungal amorphous blob we see landscapes scattered with waste and detritus. It is we that must become the fungal orange blob and re-assimilate and assist our environment in its default state. The wisdom of nature always prevails. Clean up or be cleaned up."
Watch the video for ‘The Score’ HERE
More than ever, the band wanted to produce a brand of East-Coast psychedelia that reflected the natural lusciousness and glorious solitude of the immediate world around them. Over 30 songs were conjured, considered and arranged before being whittled down to a final 10 for their debut full-length that epitomise what they do best - ten tracks of vivid hue, harnessed live power, all laced together in fluid lyrical harmonies. Taking inspiration from band favourites Woods, KGLW, Stereolab, among many others, a string of at-home recording sessions commenced over a 6-week period across the summer of 2024.
“Barns, basements and boxrooms across Norfolk were all utilised to unearth the songs from the soil of our collective minds. We practically lived with each other and buried ourselves in the music for what was almost a whole half year. We would cook for each other, learn from each other and laugh like we never could elsewhere. Even ‘that’ tricky period of cutting songs off went by with all of us in complete faith that the album's needs seemed greater than our own. If it wasn’t for the fact that recording had almost become secondary to getting actually quite good at Frisbee, we might have been able to release a double LP.”
There is a mischief and daydream to the character Floral Image, on full dynamic display across the record- a reflection of both the playful fraternity of band members Fergus Nolan (vocals, guitars), Jack Warner (vocals, keys), Matt Kennedy (bass guitar), Mitch Forsyth (drums, visuals), & Phil Whitton (guitars, visuals), and the ever-weaving textures they make together. It is an infrastructure that is unstructured; a body of work that bends and grows and shifts between light, dark, malaise, excitement. There are moments of head-down ferocity and, right there beside them, pools of pulsing wonderment. Fist and feather, hand in hand.
Produced by the band themselves, mixed by Hugh Fothergill of Volleyball, and mastered by Joseph Carra at Crystal Mastering of KGLW fame, Gone Down Meadowland is Floral Image’s first full flourish. They take the record on the road across Europe and the UK throughout April & May.
Pre-order ‘Gone Down Meadowland’ HERE
‘Gone Down Meadowland’ track-listing:
Meadowland
The Dream
Burning 305
Call Up The Doctor
The Score
Boogietown
Tiergarten
Howling Dog Song
Twist Of A Nerve
Sun For Hire
Catch Floral Image live at the following dates:
10/04 - Clermont-Ferrand, FR @ Médiathèque Jack-Ralite
11/04 - Clermont-Ferrand, FR @ God Save Clermont Festival
12/05 - Bordeaux, FR @ La Maison Allez Les Filles
03/05 - Angers, FR @ Joker's Pub
04/05 - Nantes, FR @ Ubik
06/05 - Ingolstadt, DE @ Neue Welt
07/05 - Kusel, DE @ Kinett
08/05 - Troyes, FR @ The Message
09/05 - Haarlem, NL @ Patronaat
10/05 - Eindhoven, NL @ Fuzz Club Festival
22/05 - Manchester, UK @ YES Basement
23/05 - Liverpool, UK @ Kazimier Stockroom
24/05 - Edinburgh, UK @ The Voodoo Rooms - The Speakeasy
25/05 - Newcastle, UK @ Zerox
28/05 - Bristol, UK @ The Lanes
29/05 - Brighton, UK @ Green Door Store
30/05 - London, UK @ MOTH Club
31/05 - Norwich, UK @ Norwich Arts Centre
03/08 - Kendal, UK @ Kendal Calling Festival
Find Floral Image online at:
