Its clear from the DC Comics Goes Psychedelic cover of The Murmurs of Tension EP Awkward Aura, and the nearly Mothers of Invention monicker, that were dealing with a bunch of sixties fiends here. Nuthin wrong with that per se, but its a hallowed ground that has seen many bands stumble blindly into and fail miserably.
The Murmurs of Tension seem to have all the right moves though. Bug-eyed white boy funk climbs in the mixer with freaky guitars and million-part harmonies that feel more like the hippie-dream going wrong. Majors glide into minors and make for a creeped out racket sitting on a hillside, watching all the people die.
Man.
However, like many NuSike outfits, this lot are prone to over-egging the pudding, throwing in wonky synth noises. Im not sure why this keeps cropping up because the closest thing I can think of is Hawkwind mucking about with ace ring modulators as opposed to stealing an element of a lot of bad Britpop rekkids.
Anyway, as a whole, the thing knits together pretty neatly... but if you want to dig a new band thats filled with gloom, weird skews on the world and mad-brained concepts, youre better off checking out The Last People On Earth LP which ticks all the same boxes and better. No great shakes.