Tunisia doesn’t have many bands operating in this space. Leper King is a five-piece from Tunis working in stoner and psychedelic rock – a genre with a rich lineage running through Kyuss, Sleep, All Them Witches, and Earthless – and “Nomad” is their debut single, the opening track off their upcoming six-track album “Sound of Stones” due next month on Neverdone Records. Recorded at Delia Studio in Tunis and mixed and mastered at Sonic Bloom Studios by Alaa Marnissi, the production has the warm, heavyweight sound that this kind of music demands.
The song is a slow burn with a runtime of 8:31, and it ebbs and flows between spacey ambient sections and a rock-style chorus. Those ambient sections feel like they’re supposed to represent the loneliness of the nomad and the travel itself – almost like the musical interludes are when the traveling occurs, and the vocals come in when there’s a new chapter. It works brilliantly. The lyrics reinforce this: a figure moving through hazy desert landscapes, hearing sparrow songs through the wind, crawling toward the end of time with no real option to turn back. It’s heavy subject matter worn lightly, which is harder to pull off than it sounds.
For a debut single, “Nomad” is a confident and unhurried statement. The band describes their album as “the patient kind of loud”, and this track earns that description. “Sound of Stones” will be a continuation of a psychedelic journey, and one you shouldn’t bail on.
