Chickn Announce Wowsers! Album Details; Premiere “The Elevational Love of Frank Zappa”
It was soul singer Jackie Wilson who in 1967 spoke of love lifting someone higher. Vowel-omitting Greek heavy prog weirdos Chickn aren’t quite shooting for something so romantic with their new single “The Elevational Love of Frank Zappa,” but to be perfectly honest, if you listen to the lyrics of the song, which includes piano, horns, gang vocals and probably a bunch more along with the standard guitar, bass and drums, they’re not far off. The notion of having love in your life making you a better person ties the two pieces together. It’s just that one is about a girl and the other about a largely unparalleled counterculture guitar hero.
The album from whence “The Elevational Love of Frank Zappa” comes is called Wowsers! and it’s being released by Inner Ear Records on May 11. To be sure, Zappa is an influence — they probably would’ve written the song about someone else, otherwise — but a song like “Cloud over Athens” reminds of subdued King Crimson gone dreamy psych, and the jazzy “Too Many Parables” has a post-Beatles bounce while seven-minute “China Must Win” resolves itself in a vision of nascent space rock, ending its course with winding vocal harmonies and feedback. The underlying point is that Chickn make their way as they please through the nine tracks and 37 minutes of Wowsers!, and those whims lead to a variety of destinations almost on a per song basis.
I guess then it’s fair to say “The Elevational Love of Frank Zappa” doesn’t necessarily speak for the whole record sound-wise, but it does enunciate a pivotal root from which it stems. You can stream the premiere of the track at the bottom of this post. A quote from the band, tour dates and more album details follow here, courtesy of the PR wire:
Chickn on “The Elevational Love of Frank Zappa”:
“The Elevational Love of Frank Zappa” is a true story about an incident of self-secession, recited under the beat of a war machine. It depicts in amazing details both the moment of the narrator’s reunion with himself, as well as the amazing emotion that kept the very same self together. The Elevational Love sprouted before the rest of the record and now sees the light only because it is their friends’ most cherished song. It was also recorded on the 26th of December 2017, making it the fist song recorded in that session. It’s all about that elevational love in the end of the day and we can do nothing else but share.
WOWSERS! is the sophomore album of CHiCKN, out on May 11th 2018 on Inner Ear Records (vinyl, digital), following their debut LP (Inner Ear, 2016) recorded on the verge of 2017 and 2018. It consists of 9 electric elegies that unfold their agitated collective psyche. This is what taking the effect and making it the cause for a long while sounds like when electrified.
CHICKN, having released a double LP, an EP, three singles and a half a dozen of bootlegs, decided to embrace their inner voice and capture the essence of their in-vivo interaction into this Acid Glam record.
Sunny and colorful, sometimes comforting – sometimes alarming, always fast and bulbous, WOWSERS! oozes with West-Coast vibes and proto-punk explosions. Enchanting space-outs rise like monuments of absence, carefully balanced by meteoric freakouts that insist on your presence. In the meantime, a fine blend of lyrical horns, alluring percussion, whimsical drumming, arcade guitar riffs, sensual basslines and ankle-played keyboards will chaperon you in this 38 minute trip.
CHICKN
“WOWSERS!”
[Inner Ear Records]
Format: LP, Digital
Release Date: 11 May 2018
Tracklist:
01. Invocation
02. Is This Cher
03. Too Many Parables
04. I Cry Diamonds
05. Chickn Tribe (Reprise)
06. Egg of Love
07. China Must Win
08. The Elevational Love of Frank Zappa
09. Cloud Over Athens
Tour Dates:
Wed 9 May Ypogeio Thessaloniki Greece
Thu 10 May AgoraBar Koumanovo FYROM
Fri 11 May HammamBar Pristina Kosovo
Sat 12 May CityStage Sofia Bulgaria
Sun 13 May TBA
Mon 14 May TBA
Tue 15 May Berlin Germany
Wed 16 May TraumaBar Marburg Germany
Thu 17 May Ritus Dusseldorf Germany
Fri 18 May TheWE Fes Maastricht, Netherlands
Sat 19 May Brussels Belgium
Sun 20 May WhiteNat/WhiteHeat Fes Nantes France
Wed 23 May Kalvingrad Geneva Switzerland
Thu 24 May TBA
Fri 25 May TBA
Sat 26 May El-Lokal Zurich Switzerland
Sat 9 June Gagarin205 Athens Greece
CHICKN is:
Angelos Krallis (lead vocals, guitars, synths)
Pantelis Karasevdas (drums, percussion, piano)
Don Stavrinos (horns, percussion)
Haris Neilas (congas, bongos, Percussion, electric sitar)
Axios Zafeirakos (bass)
Chris Bekiris (string machine, electric guitar, backing)
Preorders: http://smarturl.it/l5xs6o
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