FARFLUNG "IX -a stoney mid afternoon jam. A one take kinda song. I think its my fave. A lot of sludge and doom sometimes starts to sound all alike, and the pure mystical evil gets lost. We wanted to do something dark, al-a Flung. I guess this was our attempt. I cant remember much about the session. It was very dreamy, and we were infused with the idea of an alien dominated the planet, filled with alien creatures enslaving humans." From it's genesis, the ever-evolving, quintessential space rock band Farflung have bent minds and forged territories beyond all known galaxies with their innovative psychotropic sonica. They remain unmatched in the realm of spacey, acid, mushroom-flavored chromatic assaults on the five senses of everyone within perceptible range. With their latest cosmic outing -so long in the making- much to the dismay of their voracious fan base, "A Wound in Eternity" has emerged. Head-flung Grenas partners with long time collaborators Ryan Kirk and Michael Esther for an inter-planetary adventure offering propulsive, punk-laden and krautish' guitar, and utterly bombastic vocals. The staples of this stunning module are Grenas, Kirk and Esther, with alternating visitants coming along for the ODDyssey each journey out. They are reminiscent of no one, the 'Flung sound being totally unique thanks to their refusal to adhere to any forced musical structure or propensity to give into generic classifications. Grenas talks to Roadburn about the making of "A Wound In Eternity" which will be Farflung's 5th release, due out on Meteor City. Words | Tommy The LP 'A Wound In Eternity" was mostly recorded at the bearcave in Los Angeles, and engineered by long time guitarist bassist Ryan Kirk. Me, Michael Esther and Ryan Kirk played all the instruments with exception of Alex Xaviera who played drums on some tracks, and most predominantly on Silver Shrooms, which was recorded with the help of Dave Catching at Rancho La Luna [Joshua Tree]. A lot af ideas and concepts for the album were developed there as well, and I would say thats were the idea of setting upong recording 'A Wound' was greatly developed. Other sessions which were demos were recorded on a few weekends at Casey Staples Record Outlet in Filmore CA, which developed into unborn planet and endless drifting wreck. We are idebted to Fred Maher and C.J Suez for their help to move this forward. Ryan Kirks expertise in recording and musicianship helped greatly to -finally after all these years- getting something out that sounded like it was a new Farflung LP. A Wound In Eternity > Here's a brief breakdown of tracks... Unborn Planet The demo for this was recorded at Record Outlet very roughley as a jam type thing. Then we crafted it at the Bearcave. We were inspired a bit by some early Gary Numan type punk song, I forgot the title. The breakdowns were a typical flung rockout, mixing the punkisim with an almost metal pulse that just seem to fit. I think there's almost an early 80's Hawkwind feel in there to that spaces out the changes. Lyrically, it's sort of a reprise to The Belief Module. The general concept of the LP was born here. The underlining realisation of religious wars, and stupidity. Escapisim and frustration. Endless Drifting Wreck Michael came up with the main riff, and we all collapsed into the headrush of the song. The middle breakdown we used mellotron for the string melody. I think it's a very typical Flung song, and could of been on any LP really. Lyrically, its charged with Sturgeon,and Philip K Dick references. Its inspired by our childhood thoughts of what the future would of brought. Instead its like it is. Other means of space travel [mental] being the solution. Like It Has Never Been This song must have gone thru many developments. At first it was very electronic, then we got rid of most of that and replaced it with 12 strings and bass effects. There's an undecurrent of dintigrating moog and guitar feedback that goes through the song making it somewhat uneasy. The crescendo at the end was everyone basically throwing in -in a way it captures a lot of the Farflung live cacophany, something we like to do to fill a venue with unescapable saturation. I was thinking a lot about Syd Barrett who'd died around the time we recorded it. That and reading a lot of deep ocean phenomena literature. It seems like a peaceful hell down there. A place were maybe distorted minds could be at rest. stella Volo This was the last song we wrote for the LP. Actually, it was the balance maker to this section of the album. We wanted another tripped out trilogy to appease the spacerock gods. I think it sounds a bit like 'see you up there', a song on so many minds, so I guess its nice to be inspired by your past once in a while. The middle breakdown definitley has that Amon Duul II slide we all love so much. It's like on those sort of breakdowns the krautrock thing is almost unavoidable. The end jam out was us all playing percussion, clapping and chanting, fucking around a bit. Originally it was very stripped down, then we came back and added the vocal, and acoustics later. Once again very Duul inspired, I guess. I have no idea what the lyrics are about. Stream of consciousness stuff, like most of it all, but I can't remember what the inspiration was. Poisened by the sun, maybe? IX A stoney mid afternoon jam. A one take kinda song. I think its my fave. A lot of sludge and doom sometimes starts to sound all alike, and the pure mystical evil gets lost. We wanted to do something dark, al-a Flung. I guess this was our attempt. I cant remember much about the session. It was very dreamy, and we were infused with the idea of an alien dominated the planet, filled with alien creatures enslaving humans. Haw haw... we slowley filtered the reprise in to give a creeping uneasiness to it all. Silver Shrooms Recorded mostly at Rancho La Luna, with our host Dave Catching. We went up there to get a start on this LP, and this was the first session recorded. There were many sessions up there that served as inspiration to the LP, but this was the standout jam we worked on. I think its the most Floydy thing we did on the LP, and it definitely develops into heavy Hawkwind territory towards the end. It's important more as a starting point to the LP, cos it had been a while since we had played together. We excitedly talked that weekend about doing a new LP, and all having our other side projects and such, it was great to see a plan ahead for this old beast. The song is about shrooms of course. Cosmic fuel. Invincible We recorded this song in two seperate sessions, I think. We wern't sure if it was going to be a Flung song for sure, but as we layered and developed it, it became inevitable. We were playing around with harmonics and sparseness for a big ramp out. We held the vocals as long as we could on the ramp up, cos it seemed both ridiculous and unworldly there to do it. All the rest of the way out we had fun just ripping it out in the true spacerock tradition. In contrast to the harmonic experiments at the begining it was just a free for all at the end. Lyrically it's inspired by how we really are able to change the weather and not care for the results. Precognition I think this song came out rather ominous and symphonic. The synths and guitars melt really nice together. It really had an ending feel to the LP. It's got a spaceage romance to it. Celtic mythology and mystery, lyrically. Trancending the ages with space fuel. A Wound In Eternity > Review... Wow, this has got to be one of the most monstrous Farflung albums to date. And it's been quite a wait too. The album opens with "Unborn Planet", a space rock 'n roller that recalls the first Farflung album, "25,000 Feet Per Second." We've got killer molten guitars and space electronics and the trademark Grenas vocals. This leads directly into "Endless Drifting Wreck", one of my favorite tracks on the album. It rocks hard throughout, but also eases the pace at times for some dreamier floating segments, only to peak out for a high intensity finale. "Like It Has Never Been" features a mixture of electronics, a steady rhythmic pace and a bluesy space-slide guitar that sounds great. The music trips along for a while until launching into yet another classic Farflung sonic meltdown. "Stella Volo" is another rock 'n rolling song, with multiple amazing freaked out space guitars that jam away, and a cool tribal segment. "Ix" is a little different. It's as deep space as anything on the album, but has a dark and menacing vibe, plus an almost orchestral foundation that gives a very full sound and added intensity to the music. "Silver Shrooms" has been around for a while though never officially released. "Invincible" is another one of my favorites, starting off as a space-prog rocker, but later taking off into a mercury bursting manic space metallic rocking blast. This sucker will leave you battered and bruised. And "Precognition" features more high powered metal and prog fueled space rock that brings the album to a close. If had you to choose one album to play for someone that didn't know what space rock is this would be a hell of a good choice. Outstanding musicianship, tight as a knot band, excellent songwriting and production. I sure hope we get some live shows. Jerry Krantiz Read more about Farflung on Roadburn: Interview [Tommy talkin' about "The Belief Module"] | Cosmic Travel Guide [ Grenas rambles on to Roadburn about Farflung's fuel for flight].