Liquid Pennies – Fore
You gotta love a band that describe themselves as “psychedelic explorers;” that’s exactly how St. Petersburg-based act Liquid Pennies introduce themselves… And honestly, it’s a pretty apt description. The power trio specializes in a hard-to-describe sound, combining elements of prog, psych rock, and indie with a little bit of je ne sais quoi powder sprinkled overtop. They’re proud to announce their latest offering, Fore, which explores all of the aforementioned elements in a tight-but-expansive collection of eight intriguing songs. With a laundry list of wild influences – think The Mars Volta, TV on the Radio, The Smile, and King Crimson (and anything and everything in between), it’s not hard to imagine that Liquid Pennies are here to push a few boundaries. Luckily for us listeners, they do it in an exquisitely listenable way, a challenge for some prog-ish acts, but not this talented trio.
The album opens with “Tapered Scape,” which sounds like it could sit comfortably next to any song on The King of Limbs. Rhythmic vocals spamming wildly vivid imagery will be the first thing that hook you in here, with a cold and calculated drumbeat and warm, humming synth bass providing a rigid, digital spine. Soon, the band explodes into their true form (and just wait, this isn’t even their final form) – a distortion heavy three-piece that value the warm buzzing of guitar strings and the satisfying thwack of drum goodness, all laden thick with a headiness that’s impossible to ignore. They follow “Tapered Scape” up with the same, wonderful songwriting formula on “Ready Tide” – here a sexy bassline peeks through the aether before a piano sparkles and shimmers up, blossoming beautifully through the mix. It’s the perfect one-two punch to start off this tasty little LP, and these two together get a duel nod from us for our album favorites.
Liquid Pennies aren’t a bunch of one-trick-ponies, though. For the adventurous, “Echolalia” is going to be your jam. In case you are also headed to Google to look up the definition, I’ll save you the trouble:
Echolalia (n.) – meaningless repetition of words just spoken by another person, occurring as a symptom of mental conditions.
Not for the faint of heart, “Echolalia” is an 11-minute jam that finds itself ruminating on a deep groove, rooted heavily by a droning vibe, in-the-pocket bassline, bongo slaps, and Yorke-esque falsetto. As you’ll find, it evolves/devolves into a wild, face-melting jam. Time signatures go out the window. Rhythm and melody stab together in jaunty and angular hits. And it’s all soaked by an octave-heavy distortion that sounds like grinding machinery. They even find a way to slap a phaser on the drums… While they’re certainly capable of pulling off more pop-centric songwriting, if anything, this is Liquid Pennies encapsulated – the trio operating at maximum efficiency and musicianship, jamming in pure harmony with one another.
Some more rapid fire highlights in case we haven’t convinced you to sit back and let this one play out in its entirety… “Sight Skewer,” with its pulsing bass presence and blooming energy, finds the band experimenting with major keys, sounding almost happy without sacrificing the velcro-tone fuzz that keeps it sounding cohesive with the rest of their output. “Elliptic Triptych” could be on your favorite New Order or Kraftwerk album, favoring a cold and calculated 80s post-punk flavor. Lastly, epic album closer “The Bone” experiments with acoustic guitar and an orchestrated, string-laced sound; certainly the mind-blooming finale that one could hope for after diving deep into this dense and wonderful new album.
Fore is available now (July 25, 2025). You can find all the ways to support this fantastic band via this helpful Linktree link. Also, we reviewed LP’s last offering, A Wake-Ending, back in 2023… You can read up on that here.
Categorised in: Album Reviews
This post was written by Nick Sessanna