If music seems to allow us to travel both in time and place, then “Filho Do Vento”, the latest single from Bike, seems to transport the listener to a venue in San Francisco at the height of the Summer of Love. Or a sweaty basement in London’s Ladbrooke Groove as garage rock and psychedelia sweep the country. Or a host of other places connected less by actualities and location and more by outsiderness and alternative attitudes.
It may be the music of the psychedelic underground, but that is a timeless place. Rather than suggest that Bike achieve this by leaning into the past glories of such sonic pioneers, there is nothing particularly nostalgic about the music found here. There may be something familiar in the dark arabesque sounds, the slinky and sensual vibes, and the drug fug that seems to hang heavy in the dense and delicious air over the song, but this is nothing if not music made for a new, young, fresh and forward-focused discerning music fan.
“Filha Do Vento” is not a return to those scenes and styles but a continuation of such ideas. The 60s may have ended abruptly with events such as Altamont and the break up of The Beatles, but music is cyclical and perhaps the time is ripe for those seductive and supple sounds to raise their head once more. But rather than do so in a way that has us looking back, over our shoulders, instead has us looking forward to new creative heights. Music shouldn’t be about where you’ve been, it’s about where you are at!
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Filha Do Vento
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O Torto Santo
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