Temples are back with a genuine shift in direction. The Kettering four-piece have announced their new studio album ‘Bliss’, out June 26 on V2 Records, and the lead single “Jet Stream Heart” makes the new territory immediately clear. Built to mirror the physical sensation of standing in front of club speakers as hypnotic beats pull you in, the track fuses psych-tinged riffs with a club-ready pulse, blurring the line between synth and guitar using homemade fuzz pedals and unconventional studio gear. It’s a bold opening statement. Listen here.
‘Bliss’ sees James Bagshaw, Thomas Walmsley, Adam Smith, and Rens Ottink reimagining their psych-rock roots through the prism of late ’90s and early 2000s dance music, drawing on the euphoric melancholy of the Ibiza scene and European electronica. Influences include Faithless, Underworld, Massive Attack, and Portishead, and the album taps into what Temples describe as “melancholic euphoria,” simple structures giving rise to complex feeling.
Where their 2023 album ‘Exotico’ brought in guest producer Sean Ono Lennon, ‘Bliss’ was produced entirely by the band themselves, embracing improvisation and a hands-on, instinctive approach. Working together in the same room, they used samplers to manipulate and reassemble their own material rather than reworking outside sources, creating an album that moves like a collage, with motifs and textures flowing across all 10 tracks.
“‘Jet Stream Heart’ explores the feeling of being seduced by music, being pulled into a sonic jet stream and having to give in to the magnetic feeling of certain music,” the band say. “This song blurs genres and the line between what’s a synth and what’s a guitar/bass. We’re always striving to make a bold sonic statement.” On this evidence, they’ve done exactly that.
‘Bliss’ Tracklisting:
- Jet Stream Heart
- Revelations
- Megalith
- Glimmer
- Blue Flame
- Vendetta
- Jaguar
- Horizon
- Waiting On The Echoes
- Fantasy Realm