Mandrake Handshake drop enthralling new psych-pop treat, ‘King Cnut’
The 9-piece share their second single of 2024.
Photo: Jeanie Jean // Wearing: Rabbit Baby
The wonderfully named ‘Flowerkraut’ act Mandrake Handshake have released King Cnut, the follow-up to summer’s equally cosmic Charlie’s Comet. The group, who vary anywhere from seven to ten full-time members, are dishing up quite possibly the most intriguing music of our times.
King Cnut is the shimmering, stomping, psychedelic fever dream 21st century music has been waiting for, somewhere between a Caligula-esque orgy of colours and light and hypnotic shoegaze. In seconds you’ll be drawn into the kaleidoscopic rhythm of droning backbeats, ethereal vocals and King Gizzard-esque licks.
Quite simply, it’s one of those few Bacchinalian tracks that refuses to leave the cerebral cortex, instead lingering somewhere in the subconscious; fusing to your very soul. While the titular ruler proved unable to push back the tides, Mandrake Handshake have gone one step further; making the very fundamentals of nature bend to their sonic will.
King Cnut is out now via Tip Top Recordings.