Microwave recently announced their long-awaited fourth full-length record Let’s Start Degeneracy, the record is out 26th April 2024 via Pure Noise Records. Today the band have release new single “Huperzine Dreamz”.
On their new track, “Huperzine Dreamz,” the band recruited longtime friend Joe Hertler (Joe Hertler and the Rainbow Seekers) to lay down some piano tracks and other production elements as vocalist/guitarist Nathan Hardy channeled his inner Frank Ocean.
The track’s namesake, Huperzine A, is a naturally-derived supplement that increases the amount of Acetyl-Choline in your body––that’s a neurotransmitter, like dopamine, associated with learning and memory. It can have similar effects to Adderall during the day but people often experiment with it at night to elicit lucid dreams. Hardy says the track is “kind of a nod to the wide variety of nu-tropic supplements Tito and I have been experimenting with over the last several years.”
Let’s Start Degeneracy’s title, taken from a conservative politician’s take on drugs in 1970, captures the band’s newfound liberated spirit, and its tracks play by no one’s rules but their own. At various points the Atlanta trio pull together a multitude of influences ranging from ambient pop and R&B to psychedelia and yes, even Sublime.
Lyrically, Let’s Start Degeneracy is loaded with revelations, some of which came to vocalist/guitarist Nathan Hardy after experiences with ayahuasca in Peru with drummer Timothy “Tito” Pittard. As the pandemic wound down, the two reconvened with bassist/vocalist Tyler Hill and together, found their way back to being Microwave again.
“It’s about letting go of attachments and behaviours that aren’t serving you and trying to shake off your programming and not be motivated by fear and guilt and shame,” says Hardy. “It’s about learning to be happy and take care of yourself.”
Musically, it’s right up there with one of their most popular tracks, “Lighterless,” in its midtempo mastery; Hardy actually wrote this track in the Much Love days, but it didn’t feel complete until he revisited it when working on Let’s Start Degeneracy.
Let’s Start Degeneracy Tracklisting
1. Portals
2. Ferrari
3. Circling The Drain
4. Bored of Being Sad
5. Straw Hat
6. LSD
7. Omni
8. Strangers
9. Concertito
10. Huperzine
Recently the band announced one of the best co-headline tour pairings in recent years, the brilliant MICROWAVE and the wonderful THE DIRTY NIL have announced a co-headline UK and European tour through April 2024. Dates will start in Europe, and finish up in the UK, with the London show happening on April 24th at The Scala.
MICROWAVE & THE DIRTY NIL – HEADLINE TOUR DATES:
7th April 2024 – Effenaar, Eindhoven, NL
8th April 2024 – Point Ephémère, Paris, France
9th April 2024 – MTC, Cologne, GER
10th April 2024 – Feierwerk (Kranhalle), Munich, GER
12th April 2024 – Cassiopeia, Berlin, GER
13th April 2024 – headCRASH, Hamburg, GER
15th April 2024 – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham, UK
16th April 2024 – Gorilla, Manchester, UK
17th April 2024 – Oran Mor, Glasgow, UK
19th April 2024 – Leadmill (Steel Stage), Sheffield, UK
20th April 2024 – Boileroom, Guilford, UK
22nd April 2024 – Fleece, Bristol, UK
23rd April 2024 – Patterns, Brighton, UK
24th April 2024 – Scala, London, UK
Tickets on sale now
HERE (via Microwave)
