Saturated, surreal and trippy but never overwhelming
Black Moth Super Rainbow’s seventh album, Soft New Magic Dream, was released June 6, 2025 via Rad Cult. With it came an announcement for a nine-stop tour through the eastern and midwestern United States. The record is a psychedelic-electronic experience that both maintains and expands on the band’s signature sound.
This marks the first new record from the Pennsylvania-based band in 7 years, with their press release noting their intention to return to “something more serene” rather than the darker tones of their last album, Panic Blooms. As they put it in the press release, “these are freaky love songs, they funk up crunchy and rattle the speakers here and there, they melt down gelatinous at the right temperatures, and even go full ballad in a few extra-soft spots.”
Ever present through Soft New Magic Dream are rich synthetic tones that lean from wistful to contentedly hazy and the distorted vocals of Tobacco are scratchy without ever becoming abrasive. Soft New Magic Dream remains rooted in BMSR’s electronic form of psychedelia but some tracks embrace a mellower sound closer to lo-fi or dream-pop, while others embrace a heavier, more noise-adjacent style. In spite of this, the energy level never crescendos into freneticism; even the most energetic tracks are only soft peaks, while the valleys between never slow to stillness.
The album starts with “Open The Fucking Fantasy,” a distortion-laden and drum-forward walk into the band’s foggy atmosphere. It progresses into the more rooted, regretful and relaxed “All 2 Of Us,” with a flute section that’s reminiscent of classic psychedelic rock a la King Crimson.
“Tastebud” is a heavier and more rocking electric experience, with a pounding bass background and a pinch of hip-hop and alt-pop grit in its harsher drumline. It’s contrasted with fourth track “Demon’s Glue,” a sparser and more ambient take on the synthesizer riffs that lead the album. “The Dripping Royalty” reels the listener back into pure BMSR fog, with the dramatic synth haunting the track as the vocals hit their high point.
With “Brain Waster” more crunch is introduced in the drum lines, keeping a simple yet strong sound profile balanced between analog and synthetic sound. The seventh track, “The Eyes in Season,” further peels the sound back primarily into a lo-fi rhythm that serves to undergird Tobacco’s distinctive vocoder vocals.
The electronic focus returns in force in “Unknown Potion,” a gloomy but peaceful return to the walking pace of the opening tracks. BMSR doesn’t let the back half of the album turn to a slow fade, however; the penultimate track “Wet Spot Dare” brings the grit of earlier tracks back for one last go and the final track, “Sea of Hair,” gives a different, more sinister take on the beating gloom of the softer songs.
In ten tracks, BMSR manages to deliver an experience that’s best analogized as being like a slow dance in an underground lake – as surreal and artificial as it is bouncing and romantic.
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