‘Gone Down Meadowland’ is the much-anticipated debut album release from Norwich psych outfit Floral Image and is due for release on 25th April via the renowned Fuzz Club label. Pre-order ‘Gone Down Meadowland’ HERE.
Following the release of previous singles ‘Burning 305’ and ‘The Score’ earlier this year, Floral Image are acid-bomb dropping another melody rich, sparkling psychedelic pop nugget called ‘Howling Dog Song’ ahead of the album’s release. This new single is a high energy romp that is under-pinned with an environmental message and warning, howling with fury at the climate change threats going ignored worldwide.
“This is about the inability of our elected officials to make any urgent impact on the impending destruction of our climate, due to the continued use of fossil fuels. It has an unhinged energy which explodes with ferocity. We’re tired of inaction. We’re sick of petro-capitalism. We’re howling,” says vocalist and keyboardist Jack Warner.
For the ‘Howling Dog Song’ video, director M.Forsyth explains that the original (now lost) video was shot across three countries, with a film crew of nearly forty industry semi-professionals.
“We had nearly 22 minutes of some of the most riveting and dangerous stunt work ever put to digital film; ultimately, the studio and the band knew it was simply too much,” he explains. “If anything, it was hugely costly. It’s a great lesson as a filmmaker to take a loss and turn it around. I found within the B-roll a different narrative- one of noisy comradery, fear and overcoming, and love between modern men. Howling is a naked, bold, chaotic outcry to be loud and unflinching in the face of our terrifying fascist world. The message is simple- if we use the power of nature for evil, there will be insanity.”
Watch the ‘Howling Dog Song’ video HERE.
For ‘Gone Down Meadowland’, the band wanted to produce a brand of East-Coast psychedelia that reflected the natural lusciousness and glorious solitude of the immediate world around them. Over 30 songs were conjured, considered and arranged before being whittled down to a final 10 for their debut full-length that epitomise what they do best – ten tracks of vivid hue, harnessed live power, all laced together in fluid lyrical harmonies. Taking inspiration from band favourites Woods, KGLW, Stereolab, among many others, a string of at-home recording sessions commenced over a 6-week period across the summer of 2024.
“Barns, basements and boxrooms across Norfolk were all utilised to unearth the songs from the soil of our collective minds. We practically lived with each other and buried ourselves in the music for what was almost a whole half year. We would cook for each other, learn from each other and laugh like we never could elsewhere. Even ‘that’ tricky period of cutting songs off went by with all of us in complete faith that the album’s needs seemed greater than our own. If it wasn’t for the fact that recording had almost become secondary to getting actually quite good at Frisbee, we might have been able to release a double LP.”
There is a mischief and daydream to the character Floral Image, on full dynamic display across the record – a reflection of both the playful fraternity of band members Fergus Nolan (vocals, guitars), Jack Warner (vocals, keys), Matt Kennedy (bass guitar), Mitch Forsyth (drums, visuals), & Phil Whitton (guitars, visuals), and the ever-weaving textures they make together. It is an infrastructure that is unstructured; a body of work that bends and grows and shifts between light, dark, malaise, excitement. There are moments of head-down ferocity and, right there beside them, pools of pulsing wonderment. Fist and feather, hand in hand.
Produced by the band themselves, mixed by Hugh Fothergill of Volleyball, and mastered by Joseph Carra at Crystal Mastering of KGLW fame, ‘Gone Down Meadowland’ is Floral Image’s first full flourish.
‘Gone Down Meadowland’ tracklisting:
‘Meadowland’
‘The Dream’
‘Burning 305’
‘Call Up The Doctor’
‘The Score’
‘Boogietown’
‘Tiergarten’
‘Howling Dog Song’
‘Twist Of A Nerve’
‘Sun For Hire’
They take the record on the road across Europe and the UK throughout April and May and this includes a date here in Brighton at the Green Door Store which has been organised by Acid Box Promotions with support coming from Trip Westerns. Tickets for this can be purchased HERE.
Floral Image UK tour dates:
22/05 – Manchester @ YES Basement
23/05 – Liverpool @ Kazimier Stockroom
24/05 – Edinburgh @ The Voodoo Rooms – The Speakeasy
25/05 – Newcastle @ Zerox
28/05 – Bristol @ The Lanes
29/05 – Brighton @ Green Door Store
30/05 – London @ MOTH Club
31/05 – Norwich @ Norwich Arts Centre
03/08 – Kendal @ Kendal Calling Festival
