Today, Melbourne-based Bananagun have announced the highly anticipated follow up to debut album ‘The True Story of Bananagun with ‘Why is the Colour of the Sky?’ due for release on November 8th via Full Time Hobby. First offering is the jazz infused psychedelic journey ‘Free Energy’.
“It’s about the transient energy all around us and within us, exchanging between us, and the infinite possibilities depending on where you choose to place your energy. It’s like a force bigger than us that we can harness and transmute into cool things like a sculpture, a song, or even a roast dinner. It’s the ‘force’ Yoda talks about.” Drummer Jimi Gregg muses on the single. Listen here.
‘Why is the Colour of the Sky?’ is an album that departs from the ultra-slick bursts of sunshine-pop and afrobeat that defined ‘True Story… ‘, and muddies the waters with a heavy blend of incendiary jazz and freak-beat experimentation. It’s Bananagun alright, but braver, bolder and more mysterious than ever.
Recorded at Button Pusher studio Preston, Melbourne and tracking with minimal takes – ‘warts’ n’ all’ – provided “the most organic, pure way to record”. Also imperative was to manipulate the social conditions in which the takes were performed and nail the ‘vibe’ during recording: “It was all “attitude towards life and esoteric stuff, natural law, how energy transfers, sounds, chemistry between people”, explains the band’s guitarist/vocalist/flautist, and songwriter Nick van Bakel, “trying to foster an environment together where we can make some magic, capture the phenomena of energy and soundwaves interacting with each other in the room. And that was definitely what we wanted it to sound like – pro human.”
In many ways, “pro-human” captures the radical quintessence that Why Is the Colour of the Sky? is fulsomely jazz-shuffling towards. For a record that recognises, in it’s every breath and sinew the humbling, restorative and life-affirming power of collective creative endeavour – it’s also a work that resists an ever more technologically-driven and isolating world that can feel ever more dehumanising in its quests for ‘perfection’
“I feel like a lot of human nature and tradition is worth preserving because we’ve probably evolved to be this way.”, van Bakel notes, “[Why is the Colour…] is all just about not losing your head and being over stimulated by the ‘goggle box’; the need for spirituality and nature; the need to be able to communicate and share ideas and adapt in a rapidly changing world without being judged and profiled. The preservation of human needs, so we don’t all get homogenised and isolated and poisoned to stupidity and obedience.“
