Los Angeles multi-instrumentalist Nick Flessa trades lyrics for sweeping desert landscapes on his new instrumental single, ‘The Terror, The Traitor and The Tastemaker.’ Out today, the track offers a second glimpse into his upcoming album ‘A Different Kind of Energy,’ arriving April 17 on Anxiety Blanket Records.

Flessa sketched the album after buying a secluded cabin in the California high desert town of Wonder Valley. The profound isolation and stark lighting of the landscape shaped his writing. Leaning on his filmmaking background, he essentially scores scenes without words.

‘The Terror’ captures that cinematic approach. The song starts with a sparse, eerie opening inspired by vintage Yes guitar intros before building toward an ecstatic peak. Then the bottom drops out. The track shifts gears, ending on a heavy, improvised drone-metal riff. Flessa notes this destructive swampy vibe came from tracking the record live in the studio, leaving his band plenty of room to improvise and jam.

“The Terror, The Traitor and The Tastemaker achieves some of my favorite moments from this session and record (accomplished by the band tracking live, with room for improvisation), Flessa shares. “It starts in a sparse, ambient nighttime mode that drew inspiration from certain Yes guitar intros, albeit with somewhat less virtuosic execution. The build sections are emotional and soft, with an almost new-age tinge that sometimes reaches an ecstatic place; their hesitancy eventually cascades into a lurching, swampy, drone-metal riff that stomps through the track with destructive swagger. “

He recorded the album in Los Angeles over just a few days. Flessa brought in many of the same musicians from his 2024 vocal record, ‘The Politics of Personal Destruction,’ testing out the new instrumental sketches in live sets before committing them to tape.

Headline photo: Mario Luna

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