OCEAN GROVE ANNOUNCE
‘FLIP PHONE FANTASY’ ALBUM
TO BE RELEASED MARCH 13 &
UNLEASH NEW SINGLE
‘THOUSAND GOLDEN PEOPLE’
“This is the must-have album of 2020. If you have kids, get it for them. If your mate doesn’t have it, burn them a copy. And if you can’t afford it, download it off Limewire.”
–Dale Tanner
With breakneck anticipation mounting for details on the sophomore album release, Ocean Grove have finally let loose that Flip Phone Fantasy will drop on Friday 13 March. The band are also offering another taste off the record with new track ‘Thousand Golden People’ out now.
Watch ‘Thousand Golden People’ below:
The reveal adds to the melting pot of flavours already lifted in the form of ‘ASK FOR THE ANTHEM‘, ‘SUNNY‘, ‘JUNKIE$‘ and NEO‘. Ocean Grove frontman Dale Tanner explains the album was purposefully crafted to pivot between genres band influences, much like a classic mixtape of the flip phone era “Rather than an album that streamlines in one direction of genre, ‘Flip Phone Fantasy’ has the capacity to be someone’s very own mixtape from start to finish,” he says. “This record is the first of its kind, in that its sheer diversity will appeal to music listeners from all corners of the globe.”
Between the blistering chaos of opener ‘SUPERSTAR’, through to the dreamy haze of closer ‘FREAKS’, Flip Phone Fantasy ploughs through a thoughtfully complex series of moods and bends, refusing to sit still long enough to be categorised into anything other than pure “Oddworld” music. Whipped and beaten to life over the better part of two years, Ocean Grove – comprising Tanner, bassist Twiggy Hunter, drummer Sam Bassal and guitarist Matt Henley –were determined to see the vision for their second album become fully realised, meticulously self-producing every creative facet they would output.
Following the breakout success of their 2017 debut The Rhapsody Tapes, Flip Phone Fantasy is undoubtedly yet another defining moment for a band not afraid to harness the weird and wonderful aspects of themselves and the world they inhabit.
“The songs on the album have somewhat of a metaphorical undertone for the futuristic mirror image we hoped to embody by the end of the process. The album is a very intentional blue print for the changes we wanted to see in ourselves.”
– Twiggy Hunter
The turn of the millennium brought with it a technological revolution and a wave of youth caught in the middle of a transitioning world. The flip phone is an iconic time marker that’s placed right in the middle of this exciting revolution. It is the vestigial reminder of a time of ever-growing promise and anticipation of a futuristic world that would soon be literally at our fingertips
It is the ambitious energy and awe of this time that Ocean Grove recalled to create their new album, a technicoloured, hyper-active, sonic ode to retrofuturism: The thoughts and sensibilities of the current era filtered through the lens of yesterday. Or as Ocean Grove have aptly named it, a “Flip Phone Fantasy”.
All members were given unlimited licence to be as them as they could be during the making of their sophomore album. A concerted effort was made to remain as chaotic as possible, all whilst in a humble Melton, Victoria recording studio, void of distraction and external contaminants, with drummer Sam Bassal at the helmof recording, mixing and mastering. Throughout this process, Ocean Grove answered only to the universal truths of the “Oddworld”; their own all-encompassing artistic ecosystem in which curiosity, passion and weirdness prey on the boring, mundane and regressive. Since its inception during the making of their erstwhile debut, The Rhapsody Tapes, The Oddworld has become the spiritual home of all things Ocean Grove and now serves to govern the music, artwork, merchandise and videos spawned from Flip Phone Fantasy
With its stratospheric peaks through to its subterranean troughs, Flip Phone Fantasy refuses to sit still long enough to be categorised. Whipped, chained and beaten by its tyrannical creators –Ocean Grove were determined to see their vision for Album #2 become fully realised, taking the better part of two years to complete and perfect. A defining moment for a band whose success as a whole is based largely on the unique characters of the individuals contained within.
‘SENSE AGAIN’ sees the band use tenants of alt-rock to smuggle a stirring message of severing ties with toxicity –both the chemical and human kind. ‘SUNNY’ plays as though it ought to be bounced off the walls of an arena. ‘GUYS FROM THE GORD’,on the other hand, was built to shake you to your bones in a sweaty nightclub at 3am and ‘BABY COBRA’ sees the smoke, mirrors and distortion dissipate for a moment of vulnerability–-the calm before the storm that is fan-favourite ‘ASK FOR THE ANTHEM’, which we heard as a first warning shot from the record, back in 2019.
“Lyrically, this album is a more evolved perspective of youth experiences, those that define and shape us as adults and give us a compass and anchor for moving forward while being earneston the path to unapologetic authenticity.”
–Dale Tanner
Such ebb and flow between moods, emotions, soundscapes and ideas was a masterstroke from the band, who perfectly captured the intricate nuances of yet another trend that became ubiquitous with the early 2000s but unlike the flip phone, remained current: personalised custom playlists.
Self-discovery, self-worth and self-determination are core themes of Flip Phone Fantasy, as is the difficulty in navigating such vague concepts against a never-ending current of external forces actively steering you in the opposite direction.
A statement just as true for Flip Phone Fantasy, is that the record is specifically crafted as a stimulating listening experience from start to finish…or finish to start…or in whichever way the listener decides to dissect it. To compare Flip Phone Fantasy to Ocean Grove’s previous work is to miss the point entirely. Hell, compare the band to who they were a month ago and you’ll discover purposeful pivots and thoughtful adjustments.
This isn’t a band who have clocked nods of approval and thunderous applause throughout the known world by sticking to what’s safe: Ocean Grove are a band who earn their acclaim by whole heartedly plunging into the unknown.
“Combining futurism with nostalgia, we aim to make our listener feel connected by the familiar, inspired by raw self-expression and intrigued by the unknown. We hope to invigorate and unite both our mature and youth audiences alike.”
–Dale Tanner
A diverse track listing sees all bases covered: from love and lust, to anger and anarchy, to youthful innocence and the realisation of one’s impermanence. Between theblistering chaos of album opener ‘SUPERSTAR’, through to the dreamy haze of closer ‘FREAKS’; Flip Phone Fantasy is yet another
After completing support duties for The Amity Affliction across Australia in January, the band now join the inimitable Crossfaith on their EU/UK tour.
Ocean Grove return to home soil just in time for the long-awaited grand reveal of Flip Phone Fantasy, out March 13 through UNFD.
TRACK LIST:
1. SUPERSTAR
2. NEO
3. SENSE AGAIN
4. SUNNY
5. THOUSAND GOLDEN PEOPLE
6. GUYS FROM THE GORD
7. SHIMMER
8. BABY COBRA
9. ASK FOR THE ANTHEM
10. SWAY
11. JUNKIE$
12. FREAKS
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