Outer World is new duo of Tracy Wilson (Dahlia Seed, Ringfinger, more) and her partner Kenneth Close, who she played with in Positive No. Wilson has played in lot of different genres over the years, and with Outer World, they’re exploring ’60s psych, freakbeat, and yé-yé, with a few dollops of krautrock and post-punk for good measure. They’ll release their debut album, Who Does the Music Love?, on March 22 via Happy Happy Birthday To Me.
While this may not be the style usually associated with a belter like Wilson, it was unfortunately a case of necessity as a bad bout of covid took away her wild wail, so they found a sound that fit with her somewhat subdued pipes. (Make no mistake, Wilson can still sing.) Wilson and Close made the album in summer 2022 at the studio run by Lira Mondal and Caufield Schnug of Sweeping Promises in Lawrence, Kansas, with their old bandmate Keith Renna on drums.
The first single from Who Does the Music Love? is “Forms of Knowing,” which the band describe as a “throbbing psychedelic Bond theme hoping relief will come to a sleep deprived world, bogged down by the cycles of crisis upon crisis.” It’s also very groovy and danceable and makes its premiere in this post. Listen below.
Who Does the Music Love?
1. The Drum the Beat
2. Flower Gunpowder
3. Forms of Knowing
4. Have
5. The Message is the Message
6. Outer World
7. Loteria