By Allesandro Rotondi

Les Claypool and Sean Lennon are an odd, yet somehow fitting pair. A delirium, you could even say. “Amethyst Realm” is our latest dose of The Claypool Lennon Delirium, and the first of 2019. It was released on Valentine’s Day, but it’s no love song. Well, at least not your typical love song. Speaking of other things that this song is not, it’s also not a radio single. Running at 7 minutes 47 seconds, it is clear that Claypool and Lennon had no intentions to please the Top 40 charts, or garner any radioplay whatsoever. After all, who needs the radio when online streaming is quickly taking over all prior listening platforms, except maybe for vinyl.

What this song is, is a weird amalgamation of grimey alternative rock and gritty bass lines (courtesy of Claypool), and light experimentation and psychedelia (courtesy of Lennon). I expect nothing less of Sean Lennon, being the son of the late John Lennon and wife Yoko Ono. His voice is Lennon-esque, with his own twist, and his musical style is a distant relative of Ono’s avant-garde experimentation. I almost want to describe it as Yoko Ono-light. The drums, bass, and guitar are quite complex at times, with tasty drum fills and guitar trills, and Claypool’s riffing bass lines that sound like Primus bass lines thrown into a new environment. It sounds progressive to a degree, like something off an early Yes album, or even Rush and King Crimson. The song is easy to let fall into the background of your conscience, seeming to sit better as a backing mood-atmosphere work, than a piece meant for forefront focus. The sound effects, and use of grand reverbs throughout the piece give it a spacey vibe. This works quite well, considering the single’s cover shows some creepy looking termite reading a compass, likely attempting to navigate a foreign planet with red skies. This cover appears to be the one of their forthcoming album, titled South of Reality. The music indeed reflects that title, and it’s refreshing to hear two successful artists going against the grain of pop expectations, to make something strange and insect-like to infest the expectations of the “glamorous” and “spotless” music industry. Get ready to call pest control, Maroon 5 and Imagine Dragons.