Dallas Acid

The Spiral Arm + The Spiral Ambience Bundle

Artist: Dallas Acid
ReleaseProduct: The Spiral Arm + The Spiral Ambience Bundle
Label: All Saints Records
Catalogue Number: WAST058B
Release Date: July 10, 2020

Bundles

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CD + CD
CS + CD
LP + CD

CD + CD:

$32.49
- The Spiral Arm CD
- The Spiral Ambience CD Limited Edition Cream Linen Cloth Bound Digipak
- + WAV / FLAC
Available: July 10, 2020
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CS + CD:

$29.99
- The Spiral Arm Cassette Purple cassette
- The Spiral Ambience CD Limited Edition Cream Linen Cloth Bound Digipak
- + WAV / FLAC
Available: July 10, 2020
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LP + CD:

$42.99
- The Spiral Arm Vinyl, 1×LP
- The Spiral Ambience CD Limited Edition Cream Linen Cloth Bound Digipak
- + WAV / FLAC
Available: July 10, 2020
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The Spiral Arm

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.

The Spiral Ambience

After Dallas Acid stunned us with their LP The Spiral Arm back in 2019, the Texan group now fire up the synthesisers once more on sister-record The Spiral Ambience. The Spiral Arm was already a set of far-out electronic takes which brought together shoegaze, kosmische and psychedelic techniques, but on this record Dallas Acid go even deeper than they did previously. These tracks etherise the sounds of The Spiral Arm to create dense ambiences which hang in the air like thick fog. There is a majestic quality to numbers like ‘The Spiral Ambience II’ and ‘The Enamel Sea’ while ‘Ecological Succession’ is more reserved in a manner reminiscent of Biosphere.