caroline return with their first new music in three years, ’Total euphoria’, accompanied by a video directed by Parker Corey, a musician and director from Phoenix, Arizona mostly known for his work as a member of Injury Reserve (now By Storm). The group’s new output sees them evolving with the influence of new technologies & avant-garde producers.
‘Total euphoria’ features Jasper Llewellyn and Magdalena McLean singing in unison above the fray while the swirling sound beneath them builds and builds in intensity – trombone, bass clarinet and harmonium infusing themselves one at a time in layers as the sound hurtles towards escape velocity. Then, just as a sharp upward swoop of violin threatens to push things stratospheric, comes a colossal counterblast of electronic noise that cuts it all in two. That overwhelming plummet takes over entirely for a few seconds, before the initial attack of guitars and drums rallies back upwards in turn, the two sounds pushing and pulling in mid-air, then finally dovetailing – two sonic worlds moving as one. The track is well-titled; ‘Total euphoria’ delivers just that.
The group explain the origins of ‘Total euphoria’, “The first iteration of this song was played as a three (Mike, Casper and Jasper) in 2020 while we were writing our first album. It was a similar style to the guitars in the back half of Natural Death – off-kilter/syncopated – but played much wonkier and messier, and then with a broken rock beat kind of erupting at different moments. It somehow didn’t quite fit with the music we were writing/recording at the time but there was a kernel in there of something we felt we would want to explore later.
Eventually it became one of many things that we’ve happened upon that felt good to play for 20 mins straight. This one felt especially good as it was very consistently ‘loud’ and full on which was maybe a bit unusual for us at the time, and also everyone was playing these three different rhythms simultaneously which made it feel endlessly cyclical. Jasper then took the main chords and wrote a load of really nice top line stuff for singing, then we put together all the other parts with the rest of the band and finalised a structure. We realised the golden potential of how good it sounded with Jasper and Magda singing in unison also as a style, and they wrote some extra vocals and harmonies together.”
Listen / purchase ‘Total euphoria’ here.
