Norwegian band Mayflower Madame released their latest EP Premonition last month, as well as announcing that they join the bill for The Psych Weekender in Manchester in September. The announcement and release come on the back of a highly successful USA tour. Premonition is available digitally and on CD via Night Cult Records as well on cassette via Black Verb Records, SpiderChild Records and Custom Made Music.
Premonition is their first release since the debut album Observed in a Dream in 2016 and is hotly anticipated. Thematically, the tracks can best be described as apocalyptic love songs, but they also imply a sense of impending doom on a bigger level – a feeling that the whole world is balancing on the dizzy edge of the abyss.
The four track offering opens ‘Premonition’, a post-apocalyptic vision complete with air raid sirens, an intense bass line and a haunting guitar riff overlay. The atmosphere is compounded by haunting vocals which are ethereal in nature. ‘Before I Fall’ continues along this path, but adds a western inspired guitar progression that would not be out of place on the California coastline. It captivates throughout with subtle changes that ensnare the senses. ‘Alma’s Sermon’ is a pacier number with a driving beat and clever guitar interplay which grabs hold from the offset and won’t let go and despite the atonal countenance, overall the track feels upbeat and could easily fill a dancefloor given the right audience. Concluding ‘Spiders Seek’ is the perfect track to sum up the EP, drawing together elements of all that has passed before with an added eerie synth melody to contend with. Yet somehow it manages to leave the listener wanting more, rather than sating their appetites.
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