Bleep

While this group have Dallas in their name, Dallas Acid actually hail from the neighbouring city of Austin, Texas. Formed for a performance at a planetarium, the band’s combination of stargazing ambiences, dreamy atmospheres and leftfield songwriting has recently caught the ear of All Saints Records, the label responsible for issuing their new LP The Spiral Arm.

On this album the band head into strange musical territory, one where song forms and more abstract compositional styles blur together. Other artists might turn tracks like ‘Zavana’ and ‘The Spiral Arm’ into tight ballads, but in the hands of Dallas Acid the tunes dissolve into the ether. The overall effect is not dissimilar to the dreamstate songcraft of Carmen Villain or Julee Cruise.

A strong strain of Jon Hassell’s fourth-world experiments runs through The Spiral Arm. This influence becomes particularly prominent on the album’s more instrument-led entries. ‘Circuit Jungle’, for instance, is a psychedelic combination of rainforest found sounds, eerie instrumentation and slow, hypnotic groove. ‘Silk Rain’ is a bit more grandiose but no less potent, recalling 70’s prog and Krautrock with its reverb-drenched keys and snippets of whispered vocal hanging just out of reach.

In new album The Spiral Arm, the Texan group Dallas Acid have created a curious, beguiling set of hinterland songs and post-new-age soundscapes.