PREMIERE: Nonsemble - Trucksea (Ft. Dean McGrath)

Brisbane-bred indie chamber-pop crew Nonsemble have never backed down from a challenge. Over the course of their relatively short existence, the septet have made a name for themselves on the back of sprawling, luscious, vivid, instrumental compositions built from the competing and complementary sounds of piano, string quartet, bass and drums.

With their incredible new EP Spaceship Earth, however, the group have arguably conquered their biggest challenge yet: tight, orderly indie-pop tunes, replete with lyrics and vocal melodies and all.

Given that the band is comprised of uni-educated musical prodigies with a penchant for music's abstract, theoretical side, the fact they've succeeded so comprehensively at something new is hardly surprising, but they've had some friends to help along the way to realising the Spaceship Earth vision, too. In fact, the five-track EP/pseudo-song cycle boasts guest efforts from local luminaries such as Big Dead, Amela and Banana Claws, with vocal appearances from fellow Brissy fixtures Mel Tickle (PYNES, Little Scout), Shem Allen (Skinny Jean, Banana Claws), Amela Duheric, Cameron Bower (Big Dead) and Dean McGrath (Rolls Bayce, Hungry Kids Of Hungary).

It's McGrath who features on Trucksea, the video for which The Music is privileged enough to be premiering today. As you can see, the clip — created by Nonsemble mastermind and multi-instrumentalist Chris Perren (Mr Maps, Software Of Seagulls) — retains Nonsemble's talent for the trippy, using audio-triggered animation and other eye-catching techniques to visualise the song's musical contents. It's… hypnotic.

The track itself is a marvel of indie-pop ingenuity, with the typical jangles of guitars and sparkly synths replaced by stunningly dynamic string and piano work, ricocheting percussion and captivating bass lines. The band haven't totally eschewed the instrumental roots shown so proudly on earlier works Practical Mechanics and Go Seigen Vs Fujisawa Kuranosuke, with the palpable respect for musicianship and arrangement — and listeners who value such things — evoking the intelligence of Sufjan Stevens, the pop savvy of Sia and other comparisons to make you resent how honest-to-god talented this band is.

Nor have Nonsemble abandoned the abstract and intellectual; the EP's songs, they say, are thematically linked, "musing on the inadequacy of the hyper-rational worldview of the 20th-century Western world". Taking its title from the writings of architect/philosopher Buckminster Fuller (great name), the EP's songs explore "the modern relationship with science, logic, and the universe, and the fact that sometimes even our efforts to fix the Earth contribute to its destruction".

And you thought you were getting indie-pop.

As Trucksea should demonstrate, Spaceship Earth is a pretty damn special release. In recognition of that, Nonsemble will be launching the EP with all their collaborators next Friday, 29 April, at Cupo, on McLachlan Street in Fortitude Valley. As one of the city's last remaining DIY hangouts (RIP The Hangar and The Waiting Room; good times), it's the perfect spot to celebrate such a communally concocted piece of work.

There will be performances from Shem Allen's Banana Claws project, Amela and Big Dead, as well as all five guest vocalists, who will appear with Nonsemble during their set. Tickets are $15, doors at 7pm.

Spaceship Earth is available now. Go get it!

For more information on Nonsemble and what they're up to in the near future, hit up their Facebook page and/or website.