OCEAN GROVE REVEAL
NEW SINGLE + VIDEO
‘SEX DOPE GOLD’
Fresh from the announce that their visionary third album Up In The Air Forever is dropping in April, Ocean Grove are serving up another injection of high octane creative juice direct from the belly of the Oddworld™. Following its premiere via BBC R1’s Rock Show, today’s official ‘SEX DOPE GOLD’ single and video release further exemplifies the inspired vision and creative intellect of the album and its makers.
“Contrary to the abundant messaging we unconsciously receive daily through pop culture, television and advertising to embrace and satisfy our sensory urges, ‘SEX DOPE GOLD’ is the antithesis to this “norm”,” says Ocean Grove of the track.
“This song speaks of the trap we sometimes fall into in the material world: insatiable material consumption, addiction to sensory gratification and the inflation of the false ego. Ultimately, these temporary and reactionary experiences are merely an illusory escape route from the uncomfortable and unknown. If the ending of Scarface tells us anything, it is that the pursuit for sex, money and power may not turn out the way we’d hope and that it’s a vacuous pursuit. Let your ears be your eye and see your world’s truth on a platter.”
Released April 22 via UNFD, Up In The Air Forever is a 10-track, genre-bending epic musical journey. Featuring already-released cuts ‘CALI SUN’ and ‘SILVER LINING’ – each of which have found a home on radio including triple j, BBC R1 and Kerrang!, and amassed over half a million streams combined already – the album is an evolution of the trio’s early heavy sound. Throughout its course, Ocean Grove serve up a full menu of sounds and genres ranging from Brit-rock to pop, grunge and punk, ultimately confirming them as a creative force that can’t be tamed.
Thematically, Up In The Air Forever celebrates personal freedom, expression and creativity, and is is characterised by strong anarchic sentiments and resentment for a system that squashes individualism and anti-“norm” ideas.
More about Up In The Air Forever:“The power is in The Shoe,” declares the manifesto for Ocean Grove‘s visionary upcoming record Up In The Air Forever. “The Shoe, affectionately branded the ‘Oddworld 3000’, is the key to unlocking the listener’s full potential. It represents a portal that transmits the wearer to the universe of the Oddworld and beyond, where rules like gravity don’t apply.”
That shoe – of course referring to the colossal sneaker dominating the Up In The Air Forever cover art and the Ocean Grove gentlemen themselves – is a wearable transportation – better said, a transformation device. Brought to life through the genius of comic artist Brent Engstrom (Garbage Pail Kids, Topps), the album cover illustrates the walls of real-world mediocrity that Ocean Grove are looking to shatter – and the shoe they plan to do it with! Slip it on and gravitate to the highest frequencies of the Oddworld and the realest you.
“With this album, Ocean Grove is empowering the listener to reach for the stars,”continues the mission statement penned by the OG collective. “It’s not that The Shoe promises them any new powers, but rather a change in perspective that removes the external callus and conditioning they’ve acquired over possible lifetimes, the veil of illusion over their eyes that keeps them subdued and contracted.”
Coined around their inception in Melbourne in the early 2010’s, the Oddworld is the new reality in which all are welcome to enter and approach Ocean Grove, who reside at its fervent nucleus. As a gift to the trio’s “Junkies” (the already-citizens of the Oddworld) and for those uninitiated, Ocean Grove have lovingly created Up In The Air Forever and its tangible companion, The Oddworld 3000.
With its release, Ocean Grove are inviting all to strap on the sneaker and fasten themselves to the Oddworld movement. It’s an extended hand of hope and validation to anyone that feels like an outsider on this planet – a personal welcome from Dale, Twiggy and Sam to step beyond the normal and into the freedom of the anti-normal.
OCEAN GROVE IS: Dale Tanner VocalsTwiggy Hunter Bass/VocalsSam Bassal Drums/Studio Guitars/Production
~ UP IN THE AIR FOREVER ~OUT APRIL 22 VIA UNFD
~ Album art by Brent Engstrom ~@brentaengstrom~ TRACKLIST ~1. FLAVA2. SEX DOPE GOLD3. CALI SUN4. BUSTIN’5. SILVER LINING6. HMU (ft. Lil Aaron)7. BORED (ft. Dune Rats)8. NOISE9. SILENCE10. UP IN THE AIR FOREVER
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