New music from The Paradise Riflebirds

The Paradise Riflebirds is formed through a transcontinental connection between Simon J in Cairns, Australia and John Tulloch in Edinburgh. The project first emerged in 2019 with their debut single “Concrete Bones,” introducing a band as willing to get strange as they are to get serious. After a string of tracks, their first full-length, Victorian Evening, arrived the following year and just as they were getting traction, they took a step back.

Now, after a long creative silence, The Paradise Riflebirds return with “Singing Tree Forest,” a reintroduction that opens a thrilling new chapter in their musical story. The track is the first taste of a new, currently untitled album that promises an impacful, more experimental sound. Self-described as a “polyphonic steamroller,” it’s a sprawling piece of dark, slow-burning instrumental music that eschews typical rock tropes in favour of layered, dissonant beauty.

French accordions, stacked Telecaster lines, a lurching bass and martial drums all collide in a deliberate, heavy crawl like post rock raised on folklore and fed through heatwaves and hurricanes. Simon has joked about the word “cinematic” being overused, but it’s a fair descriptor here for a musical experience that’s truly transportive, taking listeners on a gripping voyage of unpredictable twists and turns.

It’s hard to define The Paradise Riflebirds without tripping over labels they themselves reject; their sound dips into the bleakness of doom metal and brushes up against the psych-tinged vibes of prog but their new single sees them offer something fiercely original. It’s what happens when two musical minds refuse to simplify, joined by a cast of global collaborators, including session legends like Clive Deamer to help bring it to life.

Brought in back a contrasting blend of pattering toms, lightly crashing cymbals, eerie accordion stretch and deep bass textures, the track casts a brooding atmosphere of enveloping instrumental alternative rock. Progressing through abrupt mood shifts and rhythmic switch ups, the track glides into trippy passages of hypnotic melodic loops with intricate rise and fall to craft an engrossing listening experience unlike any other.

Peppered with rolling drums and wrapped in murky sonic aesthetic, “Singing Tree Forest” sees The Paradise Riflebirds make an emphatic return in spectacular fashion. With a new record on the horizon, they’re sure to continue going from strength to strength with their pioneering sound and compelling compelling musical output.

Listen to Singing Tree Forest below

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