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Nov 09, 2023 By Caleb Campbell

Later this week, Manchester alt folk outfit Sleep Walking Animals is set to share their forthcoming new EP, PINK. YELLOW. RED, following after their 2021 self-titled debut. With their latest effort, the band seems set to build upon their folk foundations, incorporating pop choral harmonies, electronic elements, and an evocative production aesthetic.

As lead singer Tom Glynn-Carney describes, “we felt it was important to not begin with any forced themes, preconceptions or concepts. We allowed the musical and lyrical ideas to lead the tonality. I guess this is one of the reasons this EP feels varied and multidimensional. We wanted to explore more experimental ways to achieve emotion through our music.”

Ahead of the EP’s release, the band are back with another new track, “Cold Moves Cool,” premiering early with Under the Radar.

“Cold Moves Cool” encapsulates the band’s ambitious new horizons, offering a track that moves in many different directions at once. It opens with spacey and psychedelic choral harmonies but quickly settles into a bass-heavy funk groove, colored by some crooned vocals and clattering drums. Meanwhile, the chorus bursts with big and bright pop melodies, and the track’s bridge is painted with a messy smear of overlapping voices, lending the track a bleary dream-like quality in its second half. But most importantly, through all of the track’s twists, the band remains full of vibrant energy, and the grooves remain irresistibly catchy.

Glynn-Carney says of the track, “‘Cold Moves Cool’ is a wavy melting pot of psychedelia, abstract shapes, colours and textures. Layered, spacey lead vocals, the slap, back, and crack of the bassline funk train, old uncle Franks tin of crackled harmonies slathered over the groove. Let your body move to this one.”

Bassist Jack Brett continues, saying, “Heavily influenced by The Beach Boys circa Pet Sounds, ‘Cold Moves Cool’ is the final song on SWA’s second EP. Smooth dancing vocals roll over slap back beach guitars. Structure weaves through pop to classical. And everything is carried by Zeppelin-esque groove.”

Check out the song below. PINK. YELLOW. RED. is out November 10th via Black Sea Music.