Since their first two releases, 2012’s Lost in Those Dunes and Time Brothers, Thousand Foot Whale Claw basks in the cosmos. Songs sometimes elongating to 10 minutes or more, the Austinites’ sprawling opuses smolder like stars when not combusting into clouds of heat and dust on Black Hole Party, which furthers their glide along the galactic expanse. Like full-length debut Dope Moons Vol. 1 (2013), the quartet’s third LP winds cyborg sagas, Krautrock explorations, four-on-the-floor synth freakouts, walls of drone, and jam instrumentals. Opener “No Kingdom” burns slow with space-prog electronics that blaze into caustic distortion and frantic riffs. While the multilayered delay and natural-toned loop of “Naiad” explores Middle Eastern textures, the dance duo of “Deridium Rail” and the title track offers a sci-fi dream bright with arpeggiated synths. Standout “Genesis Effect” sprawls into an interstellar epic, beautiful acoustic guitars blooming into passing electric improvisation like shooting stars.

***.5

This article appears in July 27 • 2018.

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