Mildlife – Return To Centaurus (1x12")

Single Sided 12", limited edition of 100 copies!

‘Return to Centaurus’ marks the band’s first new material since the release of their lauded, ARIA Award-winning 2020 second studio album Automatic. Opening with droning synths and a wall of horizontal, Kraftwerk-esque vocoders, ‘Return to Centaurus’ evolves from psychedelic space rock into a gloriously hook-heavy acid funk meltdown over the course of its ten minute-long trip time. Luxuriating in loping, velvet-draped bass lines, sparkling, funk-laced guitar riffs and intricate, morphological percussion, it distils Mildlife’s unwavering adoration for the beguiling realms of 70’s psychedelic and cosmic sounds, owing as much to Sun Ra and Alice Coltrane as it does Ennio Morricone and Giorgio Moroder.

Channelling its astral namesake - home to the closest two stars to earth, Proxima and Alpha Centauri - ‘Return to Centaurus’ conjures up images of nature which are not so much earth-bound as they are more lofty and grandiose whilst simultaneously more molecular and microscopic. Here, Mildlife’s exploratory, star-hopping cosmo-jazz feels completely in tune with the universe, from the most gargantuan of supergiants to the most miniscule of mitochondria. It suggests that the thread between the two is always there, invisible but omnipresent and not as far as you might think, just waiting to be given expression. Infinite, boundless and palatial, ‘Return to Centaurus’ feels sweeping enough to house the birth of entire universes; it represents Mildlife stepping boldly into the unknown - and invites us to do the same.