Insomnia, Australia, and Grooves
Discovering Glass Beams debut EP Mirage
I don’t sleep very well. Aside from my teen years (when I was mostly high) and my 20s (when I was mostly drunk) sleep has been as elusive as finding a tolerable Aerosmith song on anything released after Toys in the Attic.
Insomnia and smartphones make for disastrous alchemy.
I often find myself scrolling through my Instagram feed at 3 a.m. - it’s not doom scrolling though, my feed is animals (talking and otherwise), music, and memes (thank god). And I’m alert enough to not purchase pants that zipper at the knees to become shorts or weird powdered food substances. Sunglasses are a different story.
Anyway, last night I was wide awake after turning each pillow over and over, trying to find the coldest part so I could maybe fall back asleep. With no luck, I gave up, lit up the phone, and began scrolling.
Yep. I am aware this is the worst possible thing to do - see previous statement re: alchemy.
Somehow this band Glass Beams from Australia slid into my feed. I was intrigued by the weird beaded masks the three members were wearing. Their look seemed to have some kind of Eastern vibe, and yeah, kinky. I soon discovered, that so did the music - the Eastern vibe… not so much the kink.
I haven’t been this gobsmacked since… I don’t know the last time I’ve spiraled down a rabbit hole at that hour in the search for music.
Under normal circumstances, the tiniest sound of a sitar, real or otherwise, is marginally better than listening to Yoko Ono croon (or whatever it is she does). Which is to say, it wouldn’t last. Yet somehow, the tones of this Glass Beams EP work.
On the surface, this is not music that I would like. It’s pretty much a hybrid of many genres and artists that I don’t much care for. At times Glass Beams is part:
The Grateful Dead
Ravi Shankar
Pink Floyd
King Crimson
Michael Hedges
And undoubtedly more obscure acts I don’t know - again, not my go-to type of music. As their Bandcamp page describes them: “… cosmic instrumentation and kraut-pervaded polyrhythms…” Fun fact about me, I’m allergic to penicillin, and, like the all-encompassing antibiotic, that description might make me go into anaphylactic shock. That did not happen.
It was the “kraut-pervaded polyrhythms” that gave me considerable pause. Yet as I write this I sit hypnotized listening to my fifth pass-through of the Glass Beams debut EP Mirage.
The band is a trio of guitar, bass, and drums… and that’s about all I can find out. No names of the members that I’ve been able to find.
The title track “Mirage” sounds as though the band is warming up against a droning background before the guitar kicks in around the 2:00 mark. And then the track blasts off.
“Taurus” begins big and then slides into a groovy sound with some background vocalizing. Repetitive and hypnotizing with a head nod to Ennio Morricone.
The third track, “Kong” is the most melodic of the four songs. It’s less polyrhythmic and is driven more heavily by the bass line.
There is a sitar vibe to all of these songs, but a real touch of The Beatles’ “Norweigan Wood” peppers the EP’s closer “Rattlesnake.”
Each of the four songs clocks in under five minutes. This not only works for my ADHD but is also one of the biggest gripes about prog rock - the length. On my best days, I have the attention span of a gnat. Anything beyond that five or six-minute mark, unless you’ve hooked me, I am out, and it’s a hard no for me.
I can’t say what exactly it is about Glass Beams that appeals to me; however, I will cop to having dabbled in psychedelics and maybe that has allowed me to find an appreciation for Mirage. At times, I find the groove too undeniable for my body and can close my eyes and see colors… just sayin’.
Of course, I’m not suggesting that you need that background or experience to enjoy Mirage. I could just as easily chalk those things up to the irritation and exhaustion of being awake at 3:30 a.m. as I could any youthful chemical experimentation.
As stated on their Bandcamp page: “We may not know much about the enigmatic Glass Beams but Mirage is one epic inauguration.”
Can confirm.
The EP was released in June of 2021 and I would like to hear more, so if anyone knows anything, drop me a line!
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