Space Queen Premiere New Single “Incantation”; New Album Coming Soon
This very evening, March 28, harmony-laced Vancouver three-piece Space Queen will play a hometown release show celebrating their new single, “Incantation,” at the Waldorf, as part of a four-band bill. Premiering below, the song is on streaming services today, and it’s a preface to the beginning of the cycle for the first Space Queen LP, maybe later this year, though nobody at this point is throwing around a release date. Fair enough.
Last heard from with 2023’s Nebula EP (review here), the everybody-sings trio — that’s how you get three-part harmonies with three people; math! — of guitarist Jenna Earle, bassist Seah Maister and drummer Karli MacIntosh continue to develop the cultish aesthetic across these three minutes, with a voice intro preceding the arrival of the start-stop riff that underlies the verse, the lyrics of lighting candles and bathing in moonlight keeping to the vibe, but there’s a tension in the guitar line that speaks to a shifting paradigm with an edge of desert tonality.
Something to listen for heading into an album,
maybe, but Space Queen brought a sense of variety to Nebula as well, and “Incantation” doesn’t feel out of line spiritually with the EP’s leanings, even as it potentially hints toward some of what the album might be exploring. The occult aspects will come through as familiar for genre heads, but the thematic has given Space Queen solid footing on which to begin their exploration of heavier sounds and ideas — the band reportedly evolved out of the folk trio Sound of the Sun, and folk remains a major element of their songwriting — and they’ve brought immediate perspective to their approach, offering listeners something they can’t get everywhere else on “Incantation” in the sinister sweetness of its croon.
The song resolves in a brief but immersive swirl, balancing pop accessibility and ethereal reach as they hit into a final slowdown and end back at the start, giving a sense of completion to the piece that’s oozing with aura and mood but still feels purposeful in its structure, never letting itself go so deep into the unknown as to become actually lost. Nebula — which is streaming near the bottom of this post, in case you’d like to do a side-by-side with “Incantation”; always fun — worked back and forth between longer and shorter songs, interludes, and different arrangements, so one would expect that when Space Queen‘s debut album arrives it’ll function much the same, but as a herald of things to come, I hope you’ll agree the new single is an enticing initial plunge.
You can hear “Incantation” on the player below, followed by more info from the PR wire.
Please enjoy:
Space Queen is the stoner rock evolution of power trio Jenna Earle (guitar/vocals), Seah Maister (bass/keys/vocals) and Karli MacIntosh (drums/vocals)
Space Queen takes the trio’s signature haunting vocal harmonies and sends them soaring over a cosmic canvas of neo-psychedelic rock. Driving beats from MacIntosh provide an anchor for Earle’s heavy distortion and 70s-style riffs, while Maister keeps everything grounded on fuzzed-out, gnarly bass.
The band released their debut EP in 2020 which garnered a ton of favourable press and college radio play, including landing on the Earshot charts. Space Queen was featured on Nardwuar The Human Serviette’s radio show for a month leading up to their EP release.
Space Queen has steadily increased their following by opening for Meatbodies, King Buffalo, Blackwater Holylight, Dopethrone, Cancer Bats, Hippie Death Cult, Mondo Drag, The Well, Acid Mother’s Temple, RIP, Spirit Mother, Spoon Benders, Hastronaut, Mos Generator and Black Mastiff. The band also hit multiple festival stages including Massif Music fest, Electric Highway, Tune It Down Turn It Up Festival, The Dream Roll, The California Avocado Festival, Noise Cult Festival, Rock ‘n’ Roll Pride, and Fallen Fest.
2023/2024 were landmark years for the band – they released their sophomore record, “Nebula,” supported by extensive touring in western Canada, across-Canada (to Toronto to play NXNE), the U.S. west coast, and Southern California multiple times.
Space Queen is releasing a new single produced by Tony Reed (Mos Generator, Pentagram) plus a supporting music video in March 2025. It will be followed by more singles, leading up to the band’s first full length album.
Space Queen live:
Mar 28 The Waldorf Vancouver, BC (single release show)
Apr 12 The Starlite Room Edmonton, AB
Apr 13 Modern Love Calgary, AB
[…] discusses the track and the band, whose previous EP the site included in their Best of 2023 picks, HERE. »Incantation« is also now streaming on all DSPs […]