• News

• All

Aug 13, 2021 By Caleb Campbell

Today Wings of Desire, the new outfit from ex-INHEAVEN members Chloe Little and James Taylor, release their sophomore EP, Amun-Ra. Coming only months after their first release, End of An Age, the band draws from influences both literary and musical, everything from Noam Chomsky to Bowie’s Berlin-era. The result is a thoughtful work that looks inward into existential questions of meaning and memory, all filtered through startlingly expansive soundscapes.

The EP opens with “Choose a Life,” a driving statement of intent for the band. The band intones over a winding kinetic instrumental, “Choose a life/Get a job/Find a wife/Fuck it up,” calling to mind the famous mantra from Trainspotting. Like the film, the band is searching for deeper joys than those promised by a simple material checklist.

That search continues on “Better Late Than Never.” Once again, the band’s influence from Factory-era post punk and New York indie rock of the early-noughties show up again. Fuzzy, insistent riffs play over top of a howling dramatic performance from James Taylor, hitting its apex as he trades calls of “We’re just getting older” and “It’s alright.”

“OUTTAMIND” is the most explosive and pounding track here. It pushes forward with the same driving intensity as the previous tracks, but this time the result is less metronomic and mechanical and more thumping and euphoric. Amidst the tenacious chaos of the instrumental, the band draws a joyous contrast between the blaring guitars and bleak lyricism.

Finally, the EP closes with the spacious soundscape of “Forgive and Forget,” an immense, festival-ready closer. It’s the perfect rousing coda to the freewheeling indie rock beauty of the EP. Amun-Ra sees the band abandon prescribed notions of performance and the dogged pursuit of perfection, instead freely reveling in the joy of self-discovery and the ambiguity of the human experience.

Along with the EP, the band has also shared a new video for “OUTTAMIND.” On the video, the band says:

“The visual for OUTTAMAMIND came from our love of the countryside. Growing up in the West Country there were so many ancient paths to walk, it felt easy to immerse yourself in the folklore and the magic. We rediscovered how important being outside is, away from the screens and the modern world distractions, it can feel very grounding to go and explore the sacred sites of the neolithic age. We shot it at Avebury, which is home to the biggest stone circle in the world. One of Derek Jarman’s first short films Journey to Avebury was also shot between the megaliths, and kind of inspired us to show our appreciation for that 60s whimsical Englishness and the simplicity of a pre-internet world. And there’s definitely a little nod to Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man for good measure.”

Check out the EP and the music video below. Amun-Ra is out everywhere via WMD Recordings.