Bogotá trio BALTHVS have shared ‘Rare Psalms,’ the latest track from their forthcoming album ‘Manifest,’ out October 7th via Mixto Records.

The title gives away where the idea came from. The Bogotá trio were thinking about Carl Sagan, the famous image of Earth reduced to a tiny point in space, and the fairly simple question that follows from it: why are we so good at wrecking the one place we actually have?

BALTHVS explain: “We are fans of Carl Sagan and his cosmic message, and we wanted to write a song praising global unity and a call awareness to our precarious position in the universe. Why destroy the one place that we call home, while there is nowhere else to go anyway?”

The thought is enormous, but the song isn’t heavy about it. ‘Pale Blue Dot’ moves at BALTHVS’ usual easy pace, the bass carrying most of the motion while guitar and drums leave plenty of air around it. Nothing is pushed too hard, which is probably why the idea behind the song lands as well as it does.

‘Manifest’ was recorded over two years, much of it fitted around the band’s constant touring, and they deliberately kept close to the setup they use onstage rather than rebuilding themselves in the studio. Longtime collaborator Christian Cifuentes worked with the trio on the recordings, helping them keep that loose, immediate quality while the music wandered into some less familiar places.

There is more movement on ‘Manifest’ than on previous BALTHVS records, with pieces drifting towards jazz, electronic music, heavier rock and faster rhythms, but judging by ‘Pale Blue Dot,’ they haven’t lost the thing that makes the band work in the first place. Three musicians, a groove, and enough room for it to go somewhere.