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Cedarsmoke
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Cedarsmoke return with their third album ‘Under The Rainbow’, a record that finds colour in every emotion and emotion in every colour. Out Friday 31st October, the Brisbane/Meanjin indie-folk/rock band reveal a body of work that traces the full arc of life’s cycles with both curiosity and grace.
‘Under The Rainbow’ is a study in cycles, tracing the emotional spectrum through a series of colour-driven vignettes. Each song represents a distinct shade and psychological state, exploring themes of mortality, change and renewal, revealing how beauty and despair coexist within the same hue.
Recorded at Incremental Studios with long-time collaborator Cam Smith, the album drifts between intimacy and disarray, grounding its reflection in acoustic guitars and piano while colouring the edges with electronic loops, modular synths and washed-out effects. Speaking on the album, Jon Cloumassis states:
"‘Under The Rainbow’ is a concept album that interprets the emotional spectrum of colour through the lens of colour psychology. It marks our most ambitious step yet, blending organic instruments with electronic textures to create a palette as diverse and fluid as the colours it represents."
Spanning ten songs, ‘Under The Rainbow’ charts the emotional spectrum one colour at a time. Across its shifting palette, the record moves between delicate balladry and restless indie rock, mirroring the emotional contrasts at its centre.
It begins in black with ‘Don’t Fear The Reaper’, a sardonic reflection on mortality that sets the tone for the album’s fascination with life’s extremes. ‘Kicking Drugs’ follows in orange, pulsing with renewed energy through warped guitars and electronic beats, while ‘Picasso Blue’ descends into a melancholic haze inspired by Picasso’s Blue Period and the artists who found clarity in sorrow.
The middle section deepens the record’s introspection. ‘Shut Your Eyes and See’ drifts through green serenity before erupting into a Beatles-like collapse, and ‘Madame Psychosis’ burns red with devotion and rebirth, Tamala Wright’s voice carrying the song’s tender gravity. ‘Going Under’ then wrestles with belief and idolatry, fusing distorted guitars and electronic loops into something both anxious and hypnotic.
At the heart of the album, the title track ‘Under The Rainbow’ gathers these colours into one sweeping vision. ‘Something Over Nothing’ glows in yellow, choosing chaos over stillness, before ‘Be Here Now’ stretches into a meditative odyssey of loss and renewal. The cycle resolves with ‘Water’, pure and white, a song of birth that lets the record exhale in peace.
Almost a decade in and three albums deep, Cedarsmoke have built a catalogue defined by wry observation, poetic restraint and a fascination with the quiet corners of ordinary life. What began as a vehicle for Jon Cloumassis’s storytelling has grown into a band with its own gravitational pull, drawing fragments of heartbreak and wonder into something bruised but beautiful.
Out Friday 31st October, ‘Under The Rainbow’ completes a full circle of colour and sound, finding light in darkness, grace in uncertainty, and beauty in every shade between.
Out Friday 31st October, ‘Under The Rainbow’ completes a full circle of colour and sound, finding light in darkness, grace in uncertainty, and beauty in every shade between.
