Stereo Embers' TRACK OF THE DAY: Black Market Karma And Tess Parks' "The Sky Was All Diseased" - Stereo Embers Magazine Stereo Embers Magazine

Our Track of the Day today comes from the UK outfit Black Market Karma.

Headed by braintrust Stanley Belton, Black Market Karma’s sonic cauldron is a whirling blend of thoughtful psychedelia, textured indie rock and loopy electronica that falls somewhere between The Perfect Disaster and Spacemen 3.

Heralding the band’s upcoming 2023 LP Friends In Noise, “The Sky Was All Diseased” is a dreamy collaboration with the Toronto-born singer/songwriter Tess Parks.

Clocking in at a little over six minutes, “The Sky Was All Diseased” is a sepia-tinged number that’s soaked in nostalgia and longing. Over a deliciously laconic groove Belton and Parks roll through the highlight reel of the past with an admixture of desire and regret. While the song aches beautifully away, a shiny guitar line appears like the sun poking through the clouds only to be swallowed in seconds again by the darkness. It’s hard to imagine a number that can be this deceptively catchy.

“I’d had the groove and music to this song floating around in my brain for a while, but had no lyrics or vocal part,” Belton says of the song. “I happened to play it one time we were at the studio together and I drop into my own world when I’m making things up, but after a while I noticed Tess out of the corner of my eye scribbling down lyrics. She started humming a melody to herself and I loved what she was doing so we went with it. I added in one more verse with an different vocal melody and a few lines at the end of the song and there it was – ‘The Sky Was All Diseased’. I laid the music down a few days later and recorded Tess’ vocals which became the track as you hear it now”

Friends In Noise will be out in January.