Track of the Day THE DHARMA CHAIN
The Byron Bay-bred, relocated to Berlin, five-piece outfit The Dharma Chain have made a name for themselves through the acclaimed 2024 debut album, “Nowhere”, via Anomic Records and a heap of ever-changing live shows all over European and Australian venues and festivals, crafting a heady and visceral noir-clad blend of Shoegaze, Post-punk, and Neo-Psychedelia, enhanced by a shapeshifting multi-vocal delivery.
Fresh from the affiliation with the Spanish imprint Spinda Records, the band returns with the standalone new single “See Through”, while The Dharma Chain’s second album is scheduled for Spring 2026.
photo by @_thaniarodriguez
“The lyrics explore the inner conflict of desiring and searching for meaning, or a divine presence, within an apparently meaningless or godless world. The voice articulates a longing to believe in something.”
Drawing echoes of mid-80s Spacemen 3, Brian Jonestown Massacre and early The Verve, with an intriguing reference to the bygone 70s vibes of the Steve Miller Band in the repetitive lyrical refrain.
In search for connection, drugged, heavy, elated male vocals slowly slung on a lithe bed of shuffling drums and warm humming bass pulses, layered with droning fuzz-drenched guitars, and echoing rippling curtains of poignant reverberations, along searing, cathartic skyward cries, before veering into a trembling and hallucinogenic elongated shimmery haze, where the lead hypnotically reiterates “keep on rocking me, baby, yeah,” haloed by spectral high female whispers “I can’t see through/you”, to embrace a transcendent path of blind faith and acceptance.
The Official Lyric Video by Frank Broek at DTAN Studio, edited by Ines Soutschka at Gaussian Studio, places The Dharma Chain under heavy fluctuating distortions to sync with the exhilarating nostalgic vibes of the soundtrack.
Keep up with The Dharma Chain:
photo by @dantrautwein
