For those not in the know, Xanthan is a three piece experimental rock band from Houston Texas featuring Boz Miller (drums), Max Miller (guitars), and Corin Gatwood (6 string basses).

The trio will be releasing their debut six-track EP Succubus Swing on May 24th, 2022 which features half instrumentals and half songs with vocals.

This E.P. features two of Xanthan’s early instrumental tracks (1934 and Colliskeions 23). The trio wanted to include them on this release to demonstrate their early sound, but the opening track (HYBYC) and the last three are songs the band is most proud of.

1. HYBYC
2. 1934
3. Colliskeions: 23
4. Bump of Excellence
5. Ms. Haan
6. In Killeen

This free wheeling, massively atmospheric and genuinely heartfelt juggernaut of an EP opens on the, at first blush thunderously funky and yet progressively sweet, perhaps even charming, melodically expressive HYBYC and backs that up with the funk-tastic 1934 and then comes the layered, sculptured and for the most part frenetically-charged Colliskeions: 23.

The first of the vocalizations (but, only faintly from the onset and then they themselves dispate) comes in on the forthright rhythms found within Bump of Excellence and that is itself followed seamlessly by the electronically static, low ebb resonators (complete with hushed vocals) of the short Ms. Haan, the EP closing on the fevered, at times cinematically-imbibed pulse of In Killeen.

Says Corin, “The album has a lot of moods. There is a lot of humor in it for us. Hence the titles, but also just how we’ve managed to compose the songs. It’s all playful. We always try something different in each song. A lot of the lyrics were inspired by strange and unsettling experiences I have had with certain people. The music was written first; but while working on the instrumentals, it put me in the right mood to write about some dark stuff. Plus, it was during late 2020, early 2021. It was still the pandemic, and hell froze over in Texas. A surreal time can be a good time to be creative, I suppose.”

“When recording the album, the music came first, but the band would adjust things for vocals as needed. Recording was fast. Every track was the three members recording live in Corin’s living room / practice space with no click track.”

Corin further explains, “The track ‘Ms. Haan’ was made from noisy stuff I made on a tape machine, and me banging on the side of my washing machine. My hope was for it to evoke the anxiety of being a child again; alone, in school, or a building with scary noises and machines humming away. And it made for a good segue.”

In closing Corin has this to say, “Just give it a listen in your car stereo on a sweltering summer night, in a dark, small town alleyway.”

Official Purchase Link

Xanthan @ Bandcamp

Xanthan @ Facebook

Xanthan @ Instagram