the church - the hypnogogue - communicating vessels

 Australian psych-rock legends THE CHURCH emerge from the darkness with their first new studio album in six years. 

 Reading like a short story from visionary science fiction author Philip K. Dick, (“A Scanner Darkly,” “Electric Dreams”), the dystopian fable weaved across the album revolves around the mythic machine that extracts music directly from subconscious dreams.“

 The bands 26th album gleams with potential hits every bit as chiming and charming as their definitive early work, like the galloping “C’est la Vie” which considers the possibility of becoming irrelevant (as the record’s protagonist does) with “Watch out tiger/ You’re on the skids. Falling out of favor/ With the kids,” the sleighbell-toned jangler “I Think I Knew,” a jittery “The Coming Days,” and an arena-huge anthem called “No Other You” that recalls vintage early-‘80s classics like “The Unguarded Moment.” 

 Buttressed by the newly invigorated triple-guitar threat of Jeffery Cain (Remy Zero), Ashley Naylor (Even, The Stems) , and ex-Powderfinger stylist Ian Haug. In the end, it’s Kilbey’s ethereal pneumatic warble and — by his own faux-journo-speak definition in the lyrics — “reptilian bass”: that hold sway, especially as the melodies get more psychedelic and prog-rock intricate on “Antarctica,” “Ascendance,” and the six-minute epic “Succulent.” 

The Church - The Hypnogogue

Written and performed by

Kilbey / Powles / Haug / Cain / Naylor

Produced by Steve Kilbey

Coproduced by Timothy Powles, Jeffrey Cain and Andrew Beck.

Mixed by Darrell Thorp (Radiohead, Beck, M83, Paul McCartney)

Starting out in 1980, The Church have continued to expand their highly cinematic and atmospheric blend of indie rock, shimmering post-punk, icy dreampop and psychedelic post-rock without any retread. Their expansive music career yielded a string of hit songs including “Under the Milky Way,” “Reptile,” “The Unguarded Moment” and “Almost With You” amongst others and their equally stellar live shows have been deemed “spectacular” by MAGNET Magazine, citing their “dreamy psychedelia that will daub your evening with shades of paisley.” Often seen as the godfathers of an Australian psych/prog scene generating such internationally successful names as Tame Impala and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, The Church have continued to evolve their sound.

Their most recent U.S. performance at 2022’s Cruel World Festival alongside Bauhaus, P.I.L. and Morrissey was heralded as “a subtle delight… that captivated the late afternoon audience” (Orange County Register), “providing the perfect soundtrack” (Rock Cellar Magazine).

 Entering their fourth decade of making music and playing live shows with all the fierce

creative energy of their early years, The Church have announced a North American tour that 

kicks off on March 11th in Los Angeles and circles the States, concluding on April 8th in Pelham, TN (tour dates below).