Today, Australian folk psych band Babe Rainbow, release their fourth album Changing Colours, via Eureka Music/AWAL/Flightless Records.
Just over six years ago the three core members of Babe Rainbow met in the surf. Angus Dowling, Jack Crowther, and Elliot O'Reilly had barely dried off when they had formed the makings of the band. They worked together as apprentices to English farmer John Cults and saved to record their first music.
Like-minded souls soon caught their music on the wind: Eric at Flightless Records, the label set up to release King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard's hefty catalog of records, welcomed the band into the family, releasing Babe Rainbow's early string of singles. Stu from King Gizz soon offered to produce their debut album and they were away. Once Danger Mouse released their sounds in the US on his 30th Century Records imprint, the word was well and truly out.
The relaxed nature of their sound belies their work ethic, as Babe Rainbow released three albums in just as many years. The eponymous debut, their sophomore effort Double Rainbow, and 2019's Today. Piquing the interest of discerning music heads around the world, they sold out the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, Point Éphémère in Paris, Elsewhere in New York, Café V Lese in Prague, Monk in Rome, and the Highland Lodge in Los Angeles.
Last year, and with Jack's baby brother Miles Myjavaec now the permanent drummer, Babe Rainbow decamped to Topanga Canyon to start work on album No.4 with regarded producer Kyle Mullarky, who was shaping similar sounds to them on the West Coast. Not surprisingly their music had already caught the ears of L.A's tight knit psychedelic music community, who had invited Babe Rainbow into their fold.
Filled with inspiration and mountain air, the band returned to the Music Farm in Byron Bay to finish the record, teaming with producer Wayne Connelly, who previously helmed classic records by The Vines and Neil Finn.
The resultant record, Changing Colours, is a leap forward in every way. Babe Rainbow has consolidated all that's wonderful about their previous music and pushed further in each direction.
Think the type of music that was floating down from Laurel Canyon in the early 70s, as Crosby, Stills, and Nash waited for Young to wander back from the forest. Think The Beach Boys after they had packed up the surfboards, ditched their LA label, and moved to the hills to practice TM and smoke Californian grass. Think Joni.
The track "California" is proof positive that there is always room for another classic paean to the great state, especially one that captures the sunshine and sense of space as Babe Rainbow has done here. If James Taylor released this song in 1972, it would have sold a million.
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