San Francisco trio Acid King will release their fourth album, Middle of Nowhere, Center of Everywhere (review here), on April 14 through an alliance with Svart Records. The three-piece’s first record in a decade reunites them with producer/engineer Billy Anderson and finds them both doing what they do best — riffing classic nod with nigh-unmatched fuzz — and expanding the sound, delivering a more psychedelic groove than their last offering, 2005’s III, had on hand. Nothing against III at all, but Middle of Nowhere, Center of Everywhere has a freshness to its sound that makes it an immediate standout in Acid King‘s catalog, and for the generation who have discovered them in the last 10 years, it marks a new beginning. After years of replays for III, their 2001 split with The Mystick Krewe of Clearlight, 1999’s classic second album, Busse Woods, and their 1995 debut, Zoroaster, and years of discussion about the prospect, there’s finally some new Acid King to put on and bliss out.

But the highlight of the record isn’t its release date. The highlight of the record is the record. The sound of the thing and the molten, fluid vibe the band conjures throughout. I’ve reviewed it, so I’ll spare you running through track by track, but at 55 minutes it never loses track of where it’s headed or what an individual song needs to accomplish to feed into the whole, but at the same time, it offers a listening experience so completely immersive that by the time you hit the swing-buzz epilogue of “Outro,” guitarist/vocalist Lori S., bassist Mark Lamb and drummer Joey Osbourne have practically created an entire world in which the record has taken place. It is a journey in metaphysics, and frankly, I look forward to continuing to shower it in the hyperbole that I feel it richly deserves for however long to come. More than a simple resurgence, it is a thrust forward into a galaxial unknown, transcendent and, like space itself, able to pull the air out from your lungs without a second thought.

Today I have the extreme pleasure of hosting the premiere for “Coming Down from Outer Space.” It’s the shortest track on Middle of Nowhere, Center of Everywhere that’s not the intro or outro, but, counter to my usual modus, I specifically asked for it because of how brilliantly it encapsulates the album’s righteousness into one ultra-lysergic hook, “Hey, you found your way/You’re coming down from outer space.” One of Acid King circa 2015’s most resonant choruses and a choice groove besides, it hits immediately and doesn’t let up throughout its 5:47 run, which you can hear in its entirety — followed by some comment from Lori S. about the song — on the player below.

Please enjoy:

Lori S. on “Coming Down from Outer Space”:

It’s less than six minutes, which is short for us. I’ve always been into space-related music like the score from 2001: A Space Odyssey. There’s a feeling of loneliness out there. This basically captures what it’s like to be up there lost alone. It’s a metaphor for finding your way back in life.

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