The amorphous (and amphibious!) UK collective The Kings of Frog Island have new vinyl impending. A little more than a year after the self-release of their fourth album, IV (review here), the Kings will follow it up with V, their second long-player since parting ways with Elektrohasch, who released their first three records. I haven’t had the pleasure yet, but the band have unveiled a video for the song “Sunburn” from the new one, and it certainly sounds like things are right on track and that all is as it should be on Frog Island.

One of the most surprising aspects of IV was just how jammed out it felt. The Kings of Frog Island, recording in their own Amphibious Sound Studios II, stretched beyond the garage styling of their third outing, the nighttime desert-isms of their second and the territory-scoping fuzz of their debut to toy with a whole host of new vibes. Made for vinyl and broken into two extended sides even digitally, IV knew what it wanted in terms of aesthetic and got there boldly, but it was clear The Kings of Frog Island were trying new sounds and reaching out into different spheres on purpose.

Part of that is lineup, the notable absence of Josiah‘s Mat Bethancourt, etc., but there’s a creative push at the heart of The Kings of Frog Island that remains consistent no matter who’s involved, and going by “Sunburn,” that remains true on V as well. The new song retains the ultra-blissed out feel of IV to some degree, but to compare it to “Long Live the King” (video here), which was the public introduction to that album, its structure is much more straightforward and traditional, less jam-intensive. I don’t know at this point whether that will be the case for V on the whole — and, frankly, I can’t imagine The Kings of Frog Island would stick to just one approach the whole time anyway — but the catchy dreaminess of “Sunburn” makes an interesting first look at V and shows the group’s progression is as alive as ever.

The video for “Sunburn” was made by Bulletree Films in Brazil. Enjoy:

The Kings of Frog Island, “Sunburn” official video

The Kings of Frog Island on Thee Facebooks

The Kings of Frog Island on SoundCloud

Tags: Leicester, The Kings of Frog Island, The Kings of Frog Island V, UK, Unsigned bands, V

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 1st, 2014 at 3:01 pm and is filed under Bootleg Theater. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.