#soundcheck psychedelic indie from free moral agents (ex-mars volta)

Free Moral Agents has been in the studio the past few months finishing up a new full length record. The first single, the super chill ‘Walk Away,’ is available on the band’s Bandcamp page. The song builds from an icy soul jam led by Mendee Ichikawa’s sky high vocals. Isaiah “Ikey” Owens (band leader and former keyboardist for the Mars Volta) layers piece upon piece in his incredibly detailed production. Like the collapsing relationship that seems to be at the heart of the song, by the time FMA has burst into a full-on psychedelic freak-out, you’re not really sure how you got where you are. Each time a new instrument comes into the mix the tension ratchets up one more metric-tension-unit. (We’ll call them centi-Owens. The International Committee for Weights and Measures should be confirming it any day now.) But it’s a testament to Ikey Owens’ genius as a producer that the radical shifts in tone and texture throughout the song are invigorating and not jarring.

The song ends catapulting into an epic guitar outro; quickly fading out in a cruel tease. They claim on bandcamp that they cut it short because they “don’t wanna give away everything.” If the goal of the single is to build anticipation for the full length, then mission accomplished.

– Contributor: Nathan Leigh