by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Some bands are waiting out the pandemic to release new music. This is not the case for New York City’s Kibby, who are getting ready to release their second full length of the stay-at-home era. The band’s sophomore album, Blabracadabra, is due out May 14th via Forged Artifacts (Half Stack, Dweller, Alexei Shishkin), and aside from a great title, the album delivers a great deal of silky psych-pop, both cosmic and full of home-brewed soul. On first listen the album shares a lot of common touchstones with Portugal. The Man’s early output (you know… before they were a Top 40 pop group), with Kibby creating what could essentially be dance music but warped and cut from the eccentric indie cloth.
Having shared lead single “First Nice Day” already, the band offer another glimpse into Blabacadabra with their second single “Sharing.” With it’s programmed rhythm, wash of dreamy synths, and lack of falsetto, this song is a bit of an outlier on the record, taking a different approach to their psych, but ultimately arriving at the same in-the-clouds type of sentiment. Guided by the bass framework, the band take an opportunity to get weird with what sounds to me like midi sax and warm harmonies that drift in like low tide on the beach.