HENGE
ALPHA TEST 4 (COSMIC DROSS/SLM)
Intergalactic prog-ravers HENGE launch 'Alpha Test 4'. The album, the band's third, is a collection of indescribable sounds garnered from far off worlds.
Side A contains six blistering, energetic tracks designed to stimulate and educate - each one taking the listener on a brief, adventurous musical encounter beyond their wildest imagination.
It features the single "Get A Wriggle On", a joyous electro/prog banger calling for immediate action to tackle the climate crisis looming over Earth, along with a glitchy vignette about malfunctioning robots called "Self Repair Protocol".
Side A also contains squelching paeans for the virtue of discovery, both in the galaxy ("Wanderlust") and the mind ("Altered State"), as well as a trippy tribute to one of the most resilient creatures known to humans, "Tardigrades".
The mind-expanding Side B, meanwhile, sees HENGE collate a batch of cosmic, melody-melting epics.
Listeners will be taken on a psychedelic journey through the arpeggiated radiations of "Ra" to the Space Rock salute of Asteroid, arriving at the love letter to Earth that is "First Encounter".
HENGE have been delighting audiences across the UK and Europe since they landed on Earth seven years ago.
Their music - known as "Cosmic Dross" - escapes definition but occupies a space between rave and prog rock that nobody knew existed - going 'where no band has gone before'.
Ultimately, HENGE spread a message of hope that leaves audiences feeling amused and uplifted in equal measure.
Their unique debut album "Attention Earth!" was released in 2018, followed by 2020's 'ExoKosm', which earned media support from the likes of BBC6 Music, PROG Magazine, Louder Than War and Buzz Magazine.
With a reputation for scintillating live performances, HENGE have won over audiences across the globe at festivals such as Glastonbury, Boomtown, Bluedot, Shambala, Beatherder, Fusion (DE), Down The Rabbit Hole (NL), Jungle Love (AU) and more - receiving the award for 'Best Live Act' at the Independent Festival Awards in the process."...a multicoloured, multi rhythmic, multiplied, multi-storey mass of total genius" - John Robb "HENGE have reinvented space rock for the 21st century" - Louder Than War - 5* "brilliant, eccentric" - Buzz Magazine - 4/5 "Brutally invigorating and disorientingly absurd" - Stewart Lee (IDLER) "Combining tremendous abandon and energy, with unflinching commitment to their story and purpose, HENGE are a band who are actually doing their own thing" - Michal Stanford (Pink Wafer).