We are ever so honoured to bring you a first taste of Golden Fang‘s new album ‘Small Worlds’ with the brilliant evocative single ‘Blue Boy’. With production by the esteemed Anth Dymke (Jo Meares, Pony Boy and solo work), this is the first release from the band since their 2021 album ‘The Man With Tell Tale Scars’ reviewed by me here.
Golden Fang don’t write songs, they write moments etched in the firmament that shimmer and shine, while singer Carl Redfern provides a yearning thread that binds the music together. ‘Blue Boy’ is a reflective and dreamy journey that starts with simple guitars and vocals before sparking like a lit fuse, waking up from a languorous beginning and morphing onto something that revs its powerful engines and shimmies and shakes. The guitars from Golden Fang have a particular scything edge that cuts like contrails in a clear blue sky while Refern’s vocals ache and yearn with emotion. Redfern says of the song:
‘Blue Boy’ is a song about the feeling of being in a relationship with someone who is struggling with the world around them.
I wrote it a few summers ago at a beautiful place called Currawong in the mouth of the Hawkesbury River. I was watching this young boy who’d swam on his boogie board quite far from the shore. His mother with increasing anxiety was calling him back, calls he was either ignoring or not understanding.
I happened to be sitting with my guitar fooling around with the chords for the song as I was watching this and the song just fell out. Musically we wanted to keep this song feeling raw and personal without it becoming too ballady or straight. We tried to treat it like a Velvets or Go-Betweens song which I think has really worked for the song.
There is an element of sunshine and broad swelling oceans in the music, ebbing and flowing, advancing and receding, shining in the crystal clear light.
The production is razor sharp – and as always with this band, it is the moments between the notes that create the atmospherics found in Golden Fang’s oeuvre, creating a whole that positively sparkles.
The accompanying luminescent video, directed by Redfern himself, captures the aquatic flow of the track – sunshine, waves and restless movement that carries you across the peaks and troughs:
‘Blue Boy’ is out tomorrow and available to download and stream through all the usual sites. Much delayed by the COVID era, the new album ‘Small Worlds’ is set for release on 15 March 2024.
The band will be launching the single on 1 March 2024 at The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville
w/ Aether – more details and tickets here.
The album heralds a new direction for the band which involved working with producer Anth Dymke (Jo Meares, Pony Face) who took the band out of their normal routine by steering them away from the usual environment of a recording studio. Redfern says:
Anth preferred to capture a live feel of us playing in our ‘natural habitat’ of rehearsal spaces and houses. Using those live sessions as a base we would then break the songs down, build them up and sometimes re-record them.
One of the great things Anth did was to really challenge us on what the songs could be. We gave him a seemingly mad brief of helping us make an album that was raw and honest sounding while also bringing out a cinematic feel in the songs.
An early listen reveals something quite special – watch out for a review.
Credits:
Carl Redfern – Vocals, Guitar
Teo Treloar – Lead Guitar
Justin Tauber – Bass, Baritone Guitar
Joe Parkin – Drums, Percussion
Anth Dymke – Keyboards, squeeze box, additional sounds
Donna Amini – Backing Vocals
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