Pennsylvania’s enigmatic synth-indie-psych-vocoder band, Black Moth Super Rainbow remains one of those bands that skirts the line of genius and insane. Their most recent release, Panic Blooms is no exception to this. While their previous releases Cobra Juicy and Seefu Lilac, demonstrate Black Moth Super Rainbow’s penchant to deliver accessible upbeat, heavily distorted, rock-synth fusion, Panic Blooms depicts a much darker and melancholic depth within Black Moth Super Rainbow’s wheelhouse.

Slippery distorted saw tooth synths abound, Panic Blooms is a commentary for current world affairs, and boy-OH-boy is this soundscape uncanny. With lead vocoder-singer and album producer Tobacco (Tom Fec) at the helm of this ghost ship, the album as a whole is a journey through a desolate wasteland, its ecosystem made of indescribable disintegrating synths, echo-slapped compressed beats, ethereal ahhhs and ooohs and the occasional whispery guitar sample. Because of vacuum sucked hard hitting snares and consistent hi-hat beats in the background, its hard not to feel like the foreground is spiraling away from you. Songs like New Breeze and Harmlessly deploy synth lines that seem to slither out of your speakers, coasting the ground below like a warm digital mist. The production on this album jumps from one end of the spectrum to the other. A song like To the Beat of a Creeper requires only a guitar and pink noise for most of track while other songs like Sunset Curses and Bottomless Face are created with such precise production that it’s impossible to distinguish which digital blips are real and which are your mind playing tricks on you.

Peering past the veneer of the Tobacco’s vocoder reveals the albums lyrics to be especially gloomy. On Rip on Through, in between resonating digital screeches Tobacco laments

“For you, for you, there's nothin I can do/

The sun went black and your hand came back/

But your garden never grew”

And while this already may be a bit on the nose for some, other songs like Bad Fuckin Times take it a step further; as synths howl in odd rhythms, the vocoder robot pilot of this ghost ship sighs “You’re even better than depression” in mantra.

Overall, this release is a great addition to BMSR’s discography. It’s strange, haunting, and oddly reminiscent of one of an overbearingly hot summer day. When compared to previous great releases such as Cobra Juicy and Eating Us, Panic Blooms might not meet expectations on the first couple listens. However, like the album title implies, when the ghostly sounds on this album are nurtured with careful repeated listening, they bloom like a visually off-putting but beautifully smelling flower. Sure, it wouldn’t be anyone’s first choice for a Black Moth Super Rainbow bouquet or corsage, but if you ever take your time to smell the roses, Panic Blooms will always be a wonderful choice.