Glass Beams

One Liner:  Funky Khruangbin Vibe with Middle Eastern flourish

Wikipedia Genre:  Psychedelic rock, synth, funk, instrumental rock, rock

Home: Melbourne

Poster Position: 15
Both Weekends.
Sunday at 3.

Tito's Tent.

Thoughts:  Thank God this wasn't Glass Animals.  They've been here before and that freaking "Gooey" song makes me want to die.  Instead, this is sort of another band in the "Khruangbin vibe" neighborhood, except with more middle eastern feels going on in the groove.  I kind of dig it.

Unfortunately, very limited music available right now.  Two EPs totaling 8 songs, with three released in 2021 and five released in 2024.  The top track is a new one - "Mahal" - with 7.9 million streams.

That is a sweet groove.  I don't know where to really place it geographically, so I have to just go with Middle East, but there is probably someone who would make fun of me and say this is totally from Egypt or whatever.  I just know it grooves.  Also, from looking at a live video they did for this, the band appears to wear little bejeweled doilies over their faces when they play, so for all we know this could actually be R.E.M. or Metallica or Khruangbin (more likely).

The band was founded by Rajan Silva, and his inspiration was traditional Indian popular music and western rock.  He apparently remembered watching the Concert for George, a tribute to George Harrison featuring Ravi Shankar along with western rock musicians, and decided something like that was ripe for action.  Wikipedia, by the way, says that those masks are Russian designed.

Here is an interesting section of a Rolling Stone interview with the founder: 

I think it may sound glib, but I did want to ask about the masks that you all don and what it represents. What kind of things have you heard/read about fan interpretations, if any? 

Like a singer explaining the lyrics to a song, we’re hesitant to give the definite answer of what they mean to us, for fear of destroying the beautiful fan interpretations.

Here are two favorites:

Indra’s Net in mythology is an intricate web which extends infinitely across the universe. The net is bejeweled, it’s glistening, as at each node of the net where threads cross there is a perfectly clear gem that reflects all the other gems in the net.

Ego Death is a “complete loss of subjective self-identity”. Complete transcendence − beyond yourself, beyond words, beyond spacetime. No self. Just pure awareness and ecstatic freedom.

In a very strange method, their second-most streamed song just ends mid-groove.  I thought it was a glitch and Spotify couldn't finish the song, but no, when it gets to 2:14 and ends it is just right in the middle of the action.  Strange choice.  But the third most streamed track is from that first EP - "Mirage" - has 5.7 million streams.

That version is live from the studio, so that you can see the freaky mask action that they wear while they jam their jams.  Weird that he is making that one sound just using the knob on that synth.  Cool.  Wikipedia does not identify the rest of the band, so I am just going to continue to assume that is Tame Impala guy and one of the Khruangbins.

I'd absolutely go see this.  Cool stuff.