Album Of The Month - "Aped Flair & Hijacked Ideas" by Black Market Karma

Black Market Karma are an indie-pop band from London whose lush tones, mellow melodies and sumptuous sonics, spin and rotate in a vortex of shoegaze, dream-pop, Indie-folk, Chamber-pop, garage-rock and neo-Psychedelia. They are an amazing band, that floats with the effervescent bubbles of ethereal pop and collide with the cosmic dust of darkwave.

A five-piece led by Stanley Belton, Black Market Karma are a band whose tenth album “Aped Flair & Hijacked Ideas” dives into the deep waters of guitar-driven music and submerges itself in an aqueous ambience of sun-drenched sonics and hazy hues. It’s a captivating work of art, that surfs the waves of 60s California, swirls in a whirlpool of 90s new wave and gazes under the shimmery lights of present-day neo-folk. For anyone who loves The Jesus and Mary Chain, Beach Boys, Suicide, Spiritualised, Spacemen 3, The Brian Jones Massacre, Underground Youth, Night Beats, Dead Rabbits, Scott Walker, The Byrds, The Velvet Underground, Cocteau Twins, Siouxsie and the Banshees and music that leaves you blinded by the sun and floating mid-air, then this is an album I highly recommend.

It’s an album that is contemporarily crafted, whilst drawing influences from the past glories of alternative rock. It’s an album that yet again hallmarks Black Market Karma as a band that helps define the evolution of garage-psychedelic rock, that offers a new dimension, whilst staying true to its origins. With a recent renaissance of fuzzy reverberation and avant-garde experimentalism, Aped Flair & Hijacked Ideas merge the sunshine euphoria of Americana with the jangly darkness of British new wave. It’s an out of body experience, that advocates the resurgence and revival of garage-psychedelic rock, that defines a new generation.

Selected as The Manc Review’s album of the month, Aped Flair & Hijacked’s opening track Dead Trajejory swims a vortex of noise-punk that has been sugar-coated in shoegaze of shimmery sonics and haunting horns. What could be the secret lovechild of the Beach Boys and The Jesus and Mary Chain is an exquisite opener and sets the tone for the rest of this stunning album.

Along with In My Child Mind (E-A), Black Market Karma bobs in the deep seas of shoegaze, whilst crashing on the tides of neo-psychedelica. It’s a tinkle of neo-folk that plunges into deeper depths of dark-wave, whilst feeling the pitter-patter of synth-pop.

Foresight For Hindsight, plucks from the sitar sonics of neo-psychedelia, whilst floating towards an Eastern horizon. It’s a hypnotic track, whose inflamed strums throb aside the curving riffs and smoulder in the exotic shores of roots folk. Along with raucous riffs, Foresight For Hindsight zig-zags into a vacuum of noise-rock and ripples from the reverie of darkwave.

Kodama tinkles from the moonlight of neo-blues and beats from the heartbeat of neo-folk. It’s a shimmer of improvisation, that ebbs and flows from dusk to dawn and tumbles into the nomadic wilderness of alt-country.

Jumble Jumble warbles, wavers and jangles in the underwaters of darkwave and rumbles in the bioluminescent blues of shoegaze. It’s sunshine meloncholy, that spins with the sardonic sugar of psychocandy, whilst soaked from the pearly dewdrops of dreampop.

Cadet #2187 rotates and strums in a vortex of neo-folk and quantum leaps into the stellar skies of space-rock. It’s cosmic chaos that space-invades the boundaries of synth-pop, whilst sliding into the blackholes of prog-rock.

The Sunshine Maker, reverberates and ripples in the shades of 60s psychedelia and obscures from the fuzzy ambience of garage-rock. It’s a mesmerising track, that daytrips down the roads of flower-power-pop and daydreams with a sprightly optimism. Through the bouncy basslines and splatter strums, The Sunshine Maker is speckled with the hazy hues of halcyon days whilst juddering from the potholes of acid-rock.

Urchin chimes from the jangly ambience of new wave and trembles from the wonky darkness of protopunk, whilst swimming in the shallow shores of dreampop. It’s a track that climatises with the currents of art-rock, and chills in the shade of avant-garde. Like the long-lost sibling of Alan Vega, The Reid Brothers and Spiritualised, Urchin goes back to the age of innovation, throwing a sonic sample of evolution in the gene pool of experimental rock.

Kong stomps with the 3D stilts of neo-psycedelia and trip-hops on the beats of ambient house. Along with the striking riffs, Kong descends into the depths of darkwave, whilst sleepwalking in a slumberous state of shoegaze. It’s a dazy haze of extended interludes, that surrenders its soul and drowns in a delirous drone of dreampop.

A Crying Shame, shimmers from the chimeric clouds of dreampop and mellows in the underground basement of noise-rock. It’s a jittery jolt of shoegaze, that peers through the lens of meloncholy and shines from the shadows of darkwave.

Ace’s Trip Through The Cosmic Ether is a reverie road trip down the highways of dreampop and floating to the lucid heights of ethereal rock. It’s an otherworldly expansion of neo-jazz that improvises within the realms of new wave and revisits the basslines of classic post-punk. Hallucinogenic and mind-bending, Ace’s Trip Through The Cosmic Ether is a space-rock escapade, that trembles in a junkyard of acid-rock and drones with shooting stars of shoegaze.

Order the album  https://album.link/i/1641457648
Vinyl LP order  https://bit.ly/3QNCBjE
Bandcamp  https://flowerpowerrecords.bandcamp.com
Apple Music https://music.apple.com/ca/album/aped-flair-and-hijacked-ideas/1641457648

As of September 29th 2022, “Aped Flair & Hijacked Ideas” will be available via all digital platforms including Apple Music, Spotify and Bandcamp. The The double album, pressed on 180-gram coloured vinyl with a gatefold sleeve, can also be ordered at https://bit.ly/3QNCBjE. For additional feel-good factor, Act Cool Records also released a live session with Stanley Belton.

CREDITS
All songs written by Stanley Belton,except for ‘Kong’ & ‘A Crying Shame’ co-written with Finley Belton
Stanley Belton – all instruments
Finley Belton – additional guitar.
Recorded, produced, mixed and mastered by Stanley Belton at the Cocoon Studio (London)
Live footage for ‘Dead Trajectory’ video filmed by Jenn Cliff-Wilcock
‘In My Child Mind’ video filmed by Louisa Pili & edited by Stanley Belton
Publicity by Shauna McLarnon at Shameless Promotion PR

TRACK LIST
1 Dead Trajectory
2 In My Child Mind (E To A)
3 Foresight For Hindsight
4 Kodama
5 Jumble Jumble
6 Cadet #2187
7 The Sunshine Maker
8 Urchin
9 Kong
10 A Crying Shame
11 Ace’s Trip Through The Cosmic Ether