PREMIERE: Hear The General Assembly's Cerebral, Masterful First Album 'Vanishing Point'

Melbourne five-piece The General Assembly are just about to drop their debut album, Vanishing Point, at the end of the week but, before it lands, you can get your first listen of the 12-track work ahead of its release right here.

Billed as akin to a series of short stories, Vanishing Point opens "inside a mysterious radio tower on the wild coast of Tasmania", where "a boy finds a book with his initials on the cover. To his alarm and fascination, it maps out his entire life — from birth to death," the album's description reads.

"As he reads, the radio beacon crackles to life and 'a sea of voices fills the room', calling him to let go of his need for certainty — to see the power in his wildness, to give in to the wonder and confounding complexity of life. So begins this epic album."

"Epic" is right; the songs, which straddle the realms of ambience, dream-pop and drone-flecked atmospherics, are pulled together by the stunning, malleable vocals of frontman Matt Wicking, who says of Vanishing Point: "Lyrically, the album deals with big themes: from the hollowing effects of capitalism and consumption, to the bitterness and melancholia of living with environmental collapse.

"I'm particularly interested in the points where human and non-human nature connect, where the lines blur and dissolve."

Across its wandering journey, Vanishing Point pulls on heartstrings and massages grey matter alike, its floating, emotive soundscapes proving as lusciously labyrinthine as Wicking's lyrics are layered. He's joined in crafting and delivering the goodness by D.A. Calf (guitars, keys, programming, percussion — and mixing/recording), Ivan 'Choi' Khatchoyan (drums), Bruce Shepherdley (bass) and Berish Bilander (additional keys).

The General Assembly will be setting off for a quick series of launch shows from mid-next month, presented by The Music. They start off at home at The Toff In Town on 16 November, then heading to Brisbane, Sydney and Newcastle to complete the journey.

Vanishing Point will be available from the group's Bandcamp page from this Friday, 13 October. Pre-orders are open now.

For more details about the tour, see theGuide.