Haunches To Heaven is the sophomore release of mid-fi pop fantasist, Jae Tyler. A joyfully deranged arena, wherein lyrical notions of alter-ego death, debased joy, and The Lord of the Rings film trilogy mingle with mangled synths, gangrenous guitars, and a degree of dark matter energy hitherto undreamt of. Calling on alt-pop and rock influences spanning the 70’s to the 00’s ranging from Todd Rundgren, McRorie Tait and The Cars straight through to the late great Prince† (RIP), Tori Amos*, and Better Than Ezra*, Haunches To Heaven dishes a hyper-rock shock to your chakras sure to shake you from crown to pelvic floor (root chakra).

The album emerges strong out of the gate with the uptempo summer jam ‘Give Me That (Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah)’. This cautionary piece about the importance of avoiding direct sunlight and coming to terms with inevitable things is ushered out by the meditative 8-bit wave sound of the Casio SK-5® coming to ferry us off to the purgatorial playground of ‘DTH BCH’. It is here that our selves are lost wandering in the foreverness, pulled under by the cosmic eddy of thong donning spectres playing jazz pan-flutes and guitars, summoning us to the vast with words like, “Do you see that? That is an eternity. Nothing but nothing beach to b-b-beach. No need to work out, you won’t need any body. Not even sunscreen, or your bong. Maybe only your favourite thong for Death Beach!” 

With the shores of ‘DTH BCH’ growing fainter and fainter in the distance we find ourselves brought back to life, or at least the stoned cold truth of the ‘Reality Bong’. Taking huge rips of trauma, and getting totally baked on mental illness is the post-woke metaphor for being high on life in this psyche-delicate rock odyssey. Tracers of Cherry Garcia and Green Day* dart through your sonic periphery, whilst unforgettable lyrics like, “Then I hit the reality bong and realised everything’s as it appears to be. There’s nothing like a gravity bong to bring you down to earth. When you’re afraid your whole perception is wrong, just clear the reality bong” provide shamanistic assistance. 

On to where fantasy and dire reality hook up in a seedy trailer home of unnatural emotions in the white trash smash, ‘Hole Being’, an homage to growing up questionably in rural Kansas, and drawing musical inspiration from the Law & Order theme song.  

The album rounds out with the charmingly candid acoustical guitar ballad ‘Fantasy Whirled’. Inspired by his brief, yet intense love affair with Crash Test Dummies* and MTV Unplugged-Season 1, ‘Fantasy Whirled’ is a guided tour of a mind in need of rescue, replete with references to SSRI’s and Jae’s yearly binging of The Lord of the Rings Extended Edition. Voiced not as a cry for help, but a call to arms for the Aragorn within, lines like,”I got my Lord of the Rings®, volumes I through III, and take my Escitalopram™. Hoping one or the other might inspire me to get up and just give it the ol’ 1-2.”, assures us that Haunches To Heaven is a well rounded work worthy of placement upon the alt-pop alter, and is surely a divining rod for the future of hyper-rock to come. Jah bless. 

*90’s era