mxdwn PREMIERE: Hot Knives Dive Into Guitar-Driven Psychedelia on New Song “Alhambra, Baby”

Brooklyn rock band Hot Knives are releasing their debut album on May 7, a record that is heavily influenced by Spaceman 3’s iconic Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To. There are droning guitar landscapes, reverb-drenched vocals, and logically they titled the LP Making Love To Make Music To Make Love To as a send-off to the noisey, space-y and influential psych rock band. Today we’re premiering the latest single from the album, a hard-hitting track called “Alhambra, Baby.”

https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/992234776

“Hot Knives make music to honor the myriad manifestations of love within and without us,” said the band. “Love is a psychedelic garden with many different strange fruits and blooms. To crib from those original hedonists, the ancient Greeks, we see romantic love as a pure analogue to the sudden zap of clarity one sometimes enjoys in the thick haze of an experimental odyssey. Nerves, doubt, and distraction fall away. Everything that led up to this moment feels easy and inevitable, and only joy remains. Take a walk in the garden, spin “Alhambra, Baby” with the one you love, and watch in awe as smoke rings turn into arabesques and the red palace crystallizes within our cloud of holy noise.”

“Alhambra, Baby” opens with a chunky, phased guitar riff that has the rollicking rhythm of a blues track, giving off a sound that’s clearly influenced by heavy-psych. Lyrically, the song is an ode to a “pretty girl,” with lyrics imploring her to spend more time with The album artwork for Making Love To Make Music To Make Love To was done by none other than Spaceman 3’s own Sonic Boom, lending a mind-bending aesthetic to the equally trippy album. While initially intended to be a more raw, DIY album, record, Making Love To Make Music To Make Love To tranformed into a fully-fleshed out studio creation. It was recorded by Craig Dreyer at Might Toad Studios and mastered by Paul Gold at Salt Mastering

Making Love To Make Music To Make Love To

01. “Metanoia
02. “Alhambra, Baby
03. “How to Recognise Different Types Of Trees
04. “Cosmogony (Seed of Creation)
05. “Judas Reigns”
06. “Static Bloom”

Matt Matasci: Music Editor at mxdwn.com - matt@mxdwn.com | I have written and edited for mxdwn since 2015, the same year I began my music journalism career. Previously (and currently) a freelance copywriter, I graduated with a degree in Communications from California Lutheran University in 2008. Born on the Central Coast of California, I am currently a few hundred miles south along the 101 in the Los Angeles area. matt@mxdwn.com
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