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Track by Track:
Black Bats - Psychic Retreat
Black Bats - Psychic Retreat
Picking up right where their sprawling 2019 self-titled debut left off, Black Bats cruise through all out garage-psych assaults and roaring power chords on their long-awaited sophomore effort Psychic Retreat. To help dig deeper, the Melbourne psych-rockers guide us through the tripped-out soundscapes track by track.
Hailing from Melbourne’s lively garage-psych scene, Black Bats succeeds in all their kaleidoscopic visions. Originally formed as a solo project by David Houston in 2014, his project’s new release Psychic Retreat delves further into the realm of blaring and desert-dwelling psych-rock with a rough-ended lo-fi sound and consistently tight focus. Alongside his trademark fuzz riffage, Houston even brings in an array of Middle Eastern-inspired guitar flares this time around.
On Psychic Retreat, Houston enlisted drummer Tim Ryles (Bad Bangs, Foggy Notion) and recorded the LP all the way back in 2019, with mixing responsibilities handled by Fabian Hunter (Girlatones, Coastbusters). The new LP was mastered and finished in mid-2020, but following delays due to vinyl shipping and after postponing album release shows due to the ongoing pandemic, the band just ended up semi-surprise releasing it through Cactus Records. However, after finishing the new album, Houston was able to arrange a new live lineup, enlisting Kelly Watson (The Braves), Neil Smith (Cactus Room) and Keith Ratnan (Holy Serpent), and managed to squeeze in one show with their contemporaries The Black Heart Death Cult and Brown Spirits before the latest lockdown.
Across the new album, Black Bats delivers 12 punchy, nitro-fuelled tracks suffused with dynamic energy and an unpolished yet layered DIY aesthetic. The opening track ‘Arabian Gold’ builds upon its Middle Eastern flavours and mesmerising guitar chords that are in the vein of King Gizzard and the Murlocs. Early highlight ‘Mild Heat’ is highly acerbic with its steady groove, roaring through blazing guitars and skittering drums, while the murky ‘Desk Rat’ flourishes with its raw energy and highly-intense rumbles. The lead single ‘Seven Day Blues’ plunges deep into the depths of a misty fever dream with ‘Swamp Fever’ encompassing a similar style with its moody organ and Houston’s haunting vocal melody. Deep cuts like ‘Desert Dream’ and ‘Island of Mine’ are loaded with jumpy hooks and scorching guitar distortion, serving as pure standouts.
With a fiery and heady brew of obscure punk and ‘60s-inspired garage nuggets, Black Bats transports listeners to a higher plane of thinking, taking your mind to places it hasn’t been before. To help us explore the greater reaches of the album’s blistering daydreams, we had the pleasure of having Houston reflect on the creation of each track and the stories behind them.
On Psychic Retreat, Houston enlisted drummer Tim Ryles (Bad Bangs, Foggy Notion) and recorded the LP all the way back in 2019, with mixing responsibilities handled by Fabian Hunter (Girlatones, Coastbusters). The new LP was mastered and finished in mid-2020, but following delays due to vinyl shipping and after postponing album release shows due to the ongoing pandemic, the band just ended up semi-surprise releasing it through Cactus Records. However, after finishing the new album, Houston was able to arrange a new live lineup, enlisting Kelly Watson (The Braves), Neil Smith (Cactus Room) and Keith Ratnan (Holy Serpent), and managed to squeeze in one show with their contemporaries The Black Heart Death Cult and Brown Spirits before the latest lockdown.
Across the new album, Black Bats delivers 12 punchy, nitro-fuelled tracks suffused with dynamic energy and an unpolished yet layered DIY aesthetic. The opening track ‘Arabian Gold’ builds upon its Middle Eastern flavours and mesmerising guitar chords that are in the vein of King Gizzard and the Murlocs. Early highlight ‘Mild Heat’ is highly acerbic with its steady groove, roaring through blazing guitars and skittering drums, while the murky ‘Desk Rat’ flourishes with its raw energy and highly-intense rumbles. The lead single ‘Seven Day Blues’ plunges deep into the depths of a misty fever dream with ‘Swamp Fever’ encompassing a similar style with its moody organ and Houston’s haunting vocal melody. Deep cuts like ‘Desert Dream’ and ‘Island of Mine’ are loaded with jumpy hooks and scorching guitar distortion, serving as pure standouts.
With a fiery and heady brew of obscure punk and ‘60s-inspired garage nuggets, Black Bats transports listeners to a higher plane of thinking, taking your mind to places it hasn’t been before. To help us explore the greater reaches of the album’s blistering daydreams, we had the pleasure of having Houston reflect on the creation of each track and the stories behind them.
Arabian Gold
This song has a really Middle Eastern sounding guitar line carrying throughout the whole song. It reminded me of the Aladdin movie when I was making it, and was originally called 'Arabian Nights' like the song from the movie haha, but I thought maybe that was a little too much of a good thing. But as far as the song itself, it was sort of the idea of people doing terrible things and saying it’s fine in the name of religion or politics, but also at the same time living in fear of some ultimate power like a god or leader. I think Donald Trump had done his millionth bat shit crazy thing for the day, and was amassing his devotees for pro life or pro church or pro wall, or whatever garbage he was spewing for the day. So it was about the anger people can have for other people, complete strangers, for no real reason, it’s crazy!
Mild Heat
Not long before writing this song, someone had been telling me about micro-dosing acid, and it being this thing that people do and supposedly having all these great benefits. Haha I’m not too sure how true any of that is, but I was like yeah ok I’ll give it a whirl (even though I think it’s meant to be over like months on end, not just a single day). Anyway this song was made after giving it a go one day. I may have gone slightly past the intended ‘micro’ amount, but the song is mainly on the idea of, is this working, or is this just a placebo, did it really help me start this song, or is it just helping because I’m thinking it’s helping? Not really being able to tell if it’s even there. And I was sitting in a pretty hot room all day when writing the song. All senses slowly cooking, slowly frying.
This song has a really Middle Eastern sounding guitar line carrying throughout the whole song. It reminded me of the Aladdin movie when I was making it, and was originally called 'Arabian Nights' like the song from the movie haha, but I thought maybe that was a little too much of a good thing. But as far as the song itself, it was sort of the idea of people doing terrible things and saying it’s fine in the name of religion or politics, but also at the same time living in fear of some ultimate power like a god or leader. I think Donald Trump had done his millionth bat shit crazy thing for the day, and was amassing his devotees for pro life or pro church or pro wall, or whatever garbage he was spewing for the day. So it was about the anger people can have for other people, complete strangers, for no real reason, it’s crazy!
Mild Heat
Not long before writing this song, someone had been telling me about micro-dosing acid, and it being this thing that people do and supposedly having all these great benefits. Haha I’m not too sure how true any of that is, but I was like yeah ok I’ll give it a whirl (even though I think it’s meant to be over like months on end, not just a single day). Anyway this song was made after giving it a go one day. I may have gone slightly past the intended ‘micro’ amount, but the song is mainly on the idea of, is this working, or is this just a placebo, did it really help me start this song, or is it just helping because I’m thinking it’s helping? Not really being able to tell if it’s even there. And I was sitting in a pretty hot room all day when writing the song. All senses slowly cooking, slowly frying.
Desk Rat
I was working in an office job I hated at the time of making this song. A fair few of the tracks on this album were written around the same time. I had this pretty wild boss, always with some new grand scheme that he wanted to implement me in. Some new business venture where he’d eventually undercut everyone and do a shoddy job. And I was eventually just like "why am I doing this", just going through this routine for something I don’t even want to be doing.
Seven Day Blues
This song is that claustrophobic feeling that you sometimes get in cities, or the in deep ‘burbs. Concrete everywhere, mass production, mass consumption, all you can eat, two for one.
Swamp Fever
'Swamp Fever' was actually recorded as basically a completely different song. It was this half throwaway weird surf guitar song. So we did the recording with me playing the original guitar riff, and Timmy sizzling away on the drums there. Then when it came to adding the other instruments, I realised it was a waste of time to bother finishing this song that in my mind was half in the bin already. And Tim’s drumming sounded extra sultry, too good to be scrapped. So I gutted the guitar, and added all the organ and then it turned into a completely different song. Different vocals and melody, different bass, the whole lot.
I was working in an office job I hated at the time of making this song. A fair few of the tracks on this album were written around the same time. I had this pretty wild boss, always with some new grand scheme that he wanted to implement me in. Some new business venture where he’d eventually undercut everyone and do a shoddy job. And I was eventually just like "why am I doing this", just going through this routine for something I don’t even want to be doing.
Seven Day Blues
This song is that claustrophobic feeling that you sometimes get in cities, or the in deep ‘burbs. Concrete everywhere, mass production, mass consumption, all you can eat, two for one.
Swamp Fever
'Swamp Fever' was actually recorded as basically a completely different song. It was this half throwaway weird surf guitar song. So we did the recording with me playing the original guitar riff, and Timmy sizzling away on the drums there. Then when it came to adding the other instruments, I realised it was a waste of time to bother finishing this song that in my mind was half in the bin already. And Tim’s drumming sounded extra sultry, too good to be scrapped. So I gutted the guitar, and added all the organ and then it turned into a completely different song. Different vocals and melody, different bass, the whole lot.
Learn To Smile
'Learn to Smile' is about just enjoying what’s around you, what you’re doing. You might’ve been somewhere a million times, but there’s still something to enjoy there, don’t get too hung up on what other people are doing I guess.
Desert Dream
'Desert Dream' is a bit of an older song, that was actually recorded for the first album, but the recording at the time never really worked and it never went on the album. I think we were pushing it too hard. It has a loud freak out in the second half of it, so we recorded it this time around with a little more mellow of a first half. Need that light and shade sometimes!
Join The War
I used to work as a chef for quite a while. And at this one restaurant I was working in, this new head chef was starting, he was the absolute worst. He didn’t last long because he tried to fight the owner of the restaurant after a couple of weeks in haha! Anyway, in that time he used to tell me all about his time in the army, and how great it was, and how I should join the army. And I was like nah... I don’t think so… And just the whole idea of people going and fighting and killing people just because someone has ordered them to, it’s insane.
I Know I’m Unhealthy
A bit of a slower bluesy ballad song. Everyone’s got their vices! Sometimes you know you shouldn’t do something, but really you’re not that intent on stopping, instead it’s more just the idea of one day giving it up.
Island of Mine
This was another song to do with the office job I was at at the time. Unrelenting phone calls all week long, sometimes times you just need peace and quiet! Need a place of retreat.
Tell Me
This was a pretty old song too. Old school garage sort of song. I remember we ended up going with the first or second take on the day, that still had the more raw looseness in the recording, compared the the later takes that tightened up more as we played it more. It’s more of a simple straight up garage song than the rest of the album, without any real extra guitar parts or flourishes, so we felt it needed more of a quick and raw energy to it.
Rain Dance
When I was first making the demo for this song, I was trying to get a snake rattle to put in with the thunder at the start. Turns out is pretty hard to find snake recordings that don’t sound like a shower head blasting away. So in the end we ended up recording me kicking my amp, and getting the reverb tank splashing around for those crackles at the start haha. I was kicking my amp in one of the studio rooms at Cactus Room, haha I think people in the other rooms thought the place was blowing up. This song’s about just doing what you really care about, and not being too bothered about people telling you what they think you should be doing instead. Leave them to worry about their own life!
'Learn to Smile' is about just enjoying what’s around you, what you’re doing. You might’ve been somewhere a million times, but there’s still something to enjoy there, don’t get too hung up on what other people are doing I guess.
Desert Dream
'Desert Dream' is a bit of an older song, that was actually recorded for the first album, but the recording at the time never really worked and it never went on the album. I think we were pushing it too hard. It has a loud freak out in the second half of it, so we recorded it this time around with a little more mellow of a first half. Need that light and shade sometimes!
Join The War
I used to work as a chef for quite a while. And at this one restaurant I was working in, this new head chef was starting, he was the absolute worst. He didn’t last long because he tried to fight the owner of the restaurant after a couple of weeks in haha! Anyway, in that time he used to tell me all about his time in the army, and how great it was, and how I should join the army. And I was like nah... I don’t think so… And just the whole idea of people going and fighting and killing people just because someone has ordered them to, it’s insane.
I Know I’m Unhealthy
A bit of a slower bluesy ballad song. Everyone’s got their vices! Sometimes you know you shouldn’t do something, but really you’re not that intent on stopping, instead it’s more just the idea of one day giving it up.
Island of Mine
This was another song to do with the office job I was at at the time. Unrelenting phone calls all week long, sometimes times you just need peace and quiet! Need a place of retreat.
Tell Me
This was a pretty old song too. Old school garage sort of song. I remember we ended up going with the first or second take on the day, that still had the more raw looseness in the recording, compared the the later takes that tightened up more as we played it more. It’s more of a simple straight up garage song than the rest of the album, without any real extra guitar parts or flourishes, so we felt it needed more of a quick and raw energy to it.
Rain Dance
When I was first making the demo for this song, I was trying to get a snake rattle to put in with the thunder at the start. Turns out is pretty hard to find snake recordings that don’t sound like a shower head blasting away. So in the end we ended up recording me kicking my amp, and getting the reverb tank splashing around for those crackles at the start haha. I was kicking my amp in one of the studio rooms at Cactus Room, haha I think people in the other rooms thought the place was blowing up. This song’s about just doing what you really care about, and not being too bothered about people telling you what they think you should be doing instead. Leave them to worry about their own life!
Psychic Retreat is out now through Cactus Records - head to blackbats.bandcamp.com to grab the album on limited vinyl.
