February 2014 in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a sleepy mountain village in the Auvergne, Tara King Th and Halasan Bazar meet for the first time, a musical blind date arranged by Steve Rosborough, boss of both bands’ Californian label Moon Glyph. Armed with an embryonic songbook of ideas exchanged over the internet, the newly formed sextet set up a makeshift studio in La Gargouille, the deliciously incongruous 70s-styled local discothèque, together with photographer/film-maker, Sébastien Tixier. Living and playing, singing, drinking and dancing together in glorious isolation amidst the snow and disco balls, the collective rapidly bond, and the stage is set for them to merge their individual brands of psychedelia...

8 is an album born out of the clashing of minds and tastes of both Halasan Bazar and Tara King Th. To this project, Halasan brings his introspective and whimsical folk-rock, whilst Tara King offers us cinematic baroque pop. The end result is a unique blend unlike anything you'll have heard before.

The best way to describe 8 is as a nostalgic trippy chill out album. Over the course of the 8 tracks (37 min, 07 sec) we are treated to some beautiful retro psychedelia.

This is one of those albums where you can't isolate a single track - the album has to be played in its entirety in order to get the full benefit. It's fun, it's trippy, it really should find its way into your collection.

8

Nick Smithson