Let’s face it: Kevin Barnes is definitely the most interesting space cadet to come out of the whole Elephant Six Collective, and his genius is the sole reason Of Montreal’s tenth studio effort is garnering the Athens, Georgia based quintet a ton of attention. While they’re still over two months away from releasing False Priest, Barnes and his own motley crew have just revealed yet another cut from the heavily-hyped set.
By the sound of “Hydra Fancies” (via SomeKindOfAwesome), all the hype is well deserved. The track doesn’t exactly have the nasty bass line and sick riffage of lead single “Coqeut, Coqette”, but the three-and-a-half minute track delivers on some of the “really great low end” Barnes promised in his interview with Spin Magazine and certainly features a very futuristic Pips-esque vibe.
The vocals alternate between the band’s new “hi-fi”, R&B influenced sound, and the classic, boyish vocal on his early Kindercore recordings. There’s no telling if they were tracked during his drunken 4 a.m. solo studio sessions, but Barnes’s musings about being tortured on a dragon’s tongue are both classic Of Montreal and welcome new insight into the madman’s brain.
Satiate your thirst for splendid weirdness with the track below, then sit tight for False Priest (due September 14 via Polyvinyl), which finds the group joined by Janelle Monae and Beyonce’s sister, Solange Knowles.
