“We’re 7 musicians from Italy, the UK and Morocco and we dress like fucking lunatics”

Those were the first words that I read about Frances and the Majesties, and they told me everything that I needed to know. It’s really refreshing to find a band that are so unselfconscious and, well, odd. Especially when they’re also an awesome freewheeling, genre-bending psych juggernaut. It’s also true too: they do dress like lunatics.

Recorded at Abbey Road, Three Dogs is just under two minutes of explosive fuzz guitar, Farfisa organ, roaming flute and languid vocals. There are so many influences stirred up in the pot that it’s hard to pick just a few, but there’s a healthy dose of early Deep Purple, King Crimson, and the Stones bubbling away in there. I can’t shake the feeling either – having listened through for what must be over ten times today alone – that this is the kind of thing that Quentin Tarantino would use in a film that played out like Kill Bill meets Suspiria. I can see Uma Thurman marauding through a German ballet school as I write, with every visceral riff coming another casualty.

So yeah, it’s a riot. The track explodes from the starting blocks and doesn’t let up until the end. The guitar work in particular is really cool, with an emphasis on feel over technicality. It’s big and brash (and kind of ridiculous) and so much better for it. Above this, Frances’ vocal is draped across the track like a veil; its ethereal sweetness smoothing out some of the song’s abrasive edges and – combined with the unusual melody and backing vocals – adding layers of mystery.

Frances and the Majesties are far more than revivalists. As a band that live together in a creative space on the outskirts of London, they’re not just playing dress-up – they actually live in this world they’ve created. Their music seems as much about a whole ideology as it does about sound – although, to be fair, the sound is pretty immense on its own. With tunes this good, I can’t be alone in looking forward to the debut LP.

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You can find Frances and the Majesties on Instagram, Facebook, and Bandcamp.

* This track was discovered via Musosoup. A small fee was paid in exchange for publication. See ‘About / Contact’ page for more details.