Sacramento’s Ganglians want an island somewhere where they can soak in the sun and prowl the canopy by night. It’s not often that they do get out, but they can get down for that. Recording sometimes as one, sometimes as four it’s a real game to figure out where the entity comes from and where it’s going. First and foremost it’s about uncertain pleasures. It’s a bit like choose your own adventure. There’s “codeine balladry”; a slightly upsetting tempo that is quickly flushed into an aural high, the next moment you’re in the toy strewn abyss of the bedroom and then out to the tribal caves of the natives. The planets align and the sun beats down, palms tingling, and you are on the island they’ve built, the scenery constantly shifting for a better view, of you.
Ganglians return after a relatively quiet two years since their dual album dropping in 2009. The aptly titled double LP Still Living, ringing in at just under an hour, stays true to their psychedelic roots established on their self-titled debut and immediate follow-up Monster Head Room (both via Woodsist), they step it up a notch both stylistically and sonically by enlisting the help of producer Robby Moncrieff (who also played a crucial role in the shaping of The Dirty Projectors' Bitte Orca).