Things move fast in the Gizzverse, and before Stu Mackenzie and his bandmates had even completed work on their recent mammoth double album Omnium Gatherum, theyd started sketching out this next record. Their Omnium Gatherum single “The Dripping Tap” had begun life as a handful of ideas and riffs that had arisen at pre-pandemic soundchecks and demos recorded through lockdown. For this new album, however, the group wouldnt be bringing in any pre-written songs or ideas; instead, they planned to cook up all the music together in the studio, on the spot. All we had prepared as we walked into the studio were these seven song titles, says Mackenzie.

The result of this radical, experimental creative process is one of the densest, most unpredictable statements from a band whose work always rockets in from unexpected angles accompanied by a wealth of subtext and theorems. But you dont even need a passing understanding of those Ancient Greek musical modes to appreciate this adventurous new music.