Where the group\u2019s debut, \u2018The Nostomanic Cypher\u2019, worked the terrain of personal memory and identity, An Excess of Hauntings pushes outward into something closer to cultural haunting: lost futures, half-remembered timelines, the things that should have faded but insist on sticking around. It\u2019s a smart pivot, and a risky one. Concept albums about ghosts are ten-a-penny; albums about what ghosts actually represent are rarer, and harder to pull off without tipping into pretension. Lang and producer Tim Whitt avoid that trap by refusing to let the record settle into one mode for long.<\/p>\n
That restlessness is the record\u2019s defining trait. Across its run, \u2018An Excess of Hauntings\u2019 moves through alternative rock, post-punk, prog, trip hop and electronics with the confidence of a band uninterested in genre loyalty \u2014 synths and samples sit next to free-jazz saxophone and banjo, with whole passages threatening to collapse into noise before pulling back at the last moment. <\/p>\n
The opening title track begins with an ominous spoken word tale (from Alan Tully) with a kind of Scottish gothic horror in the delivery and a shimmering instrumentation in the ether: haunting feedback and reverb. It\u2019s a fitting and chilling introduction \u2013 the following track \u2018Access Will Be Retained\u2019 is a more standard indie track framed by horns, a driving force and an anthemic delivery, almost subverted by a wandering jazzy interlude. There are elements of Depeche Mode dancing in a giddy whirl with Pink Floyd and something more wild and frenetic. The track detonates into genuine free-jazz chaos, the kind of moment that separates bands merely referencing weirdness from bands actually willing to sit inside it. <\/p>\n
The enigmatic video was written and directed by: Nick Prescott and Patrick Lang:<\/p>\n
\u2018Isolated State\u2019 pulls the tempo down into moody trip-hop territory and yet the passing sound of a banjo and ethereal backing vocals add a frisson. The track ebbs and flows in thrilling waves. \u2018A Frozen Moment\u2019 recalls elements of Floyd again: delicate and anthemic with an Antarctic chill while I cannot help thinking of a shoegaze blur delivered by The Verve at their best.<\/p>\n
\u2018The Magnetbahn, Part I\u2019 features a pulse-like throb throughout, underpinning washes of synths and spoken vocals. It features Wolfgang Fl\u00fcr \u2014 a member of Kraftwerk during the band\u2019s most formative run. It\u2019s a haunting spacious track that hangs in the skies like a constellation, glittering and immersive. The track segues into the epic, evolving \u2018The Magnetbahn, Part II\u2019 with its cinematic wash: another anthemic blast of sonic goodness with the passionate vocal delivery filled with drama and theatre.<\/p>\n
\u2018The First Law\u2019 reminds me a little of the legendary The Laughing Clowns with its indie jazz delivery, frenetic and wild, unhinged in the best way with just a touch of Sex Pistols and Nine Inch Nails and a punky eviscerating blast. By contrast, \u2018Breaking Ground\u2019 eases back into a lounge room groove, still framed by horns but all late night, red velvet lounged insouciance.<\/p>\n
\u2018Stabilise\u2019 does exactly what its title promises not to \u2014 a slow-motion structural collapse that\u2019s one of the record\u2019s most unsettling stretches. Pattering percussion gives it a nervous energy.<\/p>\n
Final track instrumental \u2018The Unending\u2019 is a 21 minute final salute with a thousand yard stare, opening with, as the album began, an ominous air of shimmering synths glittering in the sky that stretches on, endlessly. The intensity builds but the synth wash mesmerises. The result is something elegiac and hypnotic that does as the title suggests: casts you off into eternity, and endless cycle.<\/p>\n
The presence of Fl\u00fcr in this album could easily have been the kind of guest credit that overshadows everything else on a record like this. Instead it reads as a natural extension of the album\u2019s whole premise: a genuine artefact of the electronic past turning up inside a record obsessed with the pull of the past on the present. It\u2019s less a flex than a thesis statement.<\/p>\n
What makes \u2018An Excess of Hauntings\u2019 feel like more than a collection of songs, though, is the object it arrives inside. The limited-edition art book, designed by longtime collaborator Jesse Miles with photography by light-painter Denis Smith, isn\u2019t a booklet in any traditional sense \u2014 it\u2019s a scattered set of narrative fragments the listener has to assemble themselves, with no correct order and no guaranteed resolution. It\u2019s a fitting physical counterpart to an album about things that refuse to cohere into a tidy shape, and it pushes The Only Objects further into the territory of bands who treat the album-as-object as seriously as the album-as-audio.<\/p>\n
None of this would land if the songwriting underneath it were thin, and it isn\u2019t. There\u2019s a confidence here that comes from a band who\u2019ve already done the introspective record and know they don\u2019t need to do it again \u2014 creativity does not have a use-by date, and \u2018An Excess of Hauntings\u2019 is proof that ambition doesn\u2019t either. It\u2019s a record that trusts its listener to do some of the assembling, both narratively and sonically, and it\u2019s better for it.<\/p>\n
Ultimately \u2018An Excess of Haunting\u2019 is an ambitious and immersive triumph, delivered with a profound confidence and elegance that makes it one of the most exciting and, yes, surprising albums of the year so far, from an outfit that wasn\u2019t on my radar. And it is now.<\/p>\n
\u2018An Excess of Hauntings\u2019 is out nationally on Friday 28 August and available to download through the link above and here<\/a>. The album will be performed in full at the Adelaide launch at Low Life Basement Bar on Friday 4 September, alongside Pink Noise Generator and Future Forest \u2013 tickets available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ultimately \u2018An Excess of Haunting\u2019 is an ambitious and immersive triumph, delivered with a profound confidence and elegance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[395,26750,2719,69852,27110,131966,131967,131968,4329,131969,131970],"class_list":["post-82631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-adelaide","tag-adelaide","tag-album-review","tag-backseat-downunder","tag-backseat-mafia","tag-electronic","tag-experi","tag-experimental","tag-gothic","tag-indie","tag-kraftwerk","tag-the-only-objects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/749143132_1613570950774070_1299432951546057587_n.jpg\")
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