Best known to some as Steve Bourke, frontman of indie troupe Step-Panther, SM Jenkins is flexing his creative nous with a new solo project, the debut EP for which, Out There In The Zone, is out at the end of the month.
To pre-emptively celebrate the new release, The Music is stoked to be premiering jangly, dreamy new cut Boulder Valley today. It's a reverb-soaked amble through sun-drenched, rolling soundscapes, clean-channel guitar bends and endearingly imperfect vocals that sets the tone for what to expect from the forthcoming release, the laid-back pace finding its genesis in quieter moments during the recording of Step-Panther's lauded 2014 full-length, Strange But Nice.
The track follows January's effort, Mikrowave, which established the lo-fi warmth and DIY sensibilities that SM Jenkins has plied here, amounting to an altogether more relaxed and introspective listen than for which the troubadour is more widely known. According to the man himself, the song is about "a place behind my house, but it's exaggerated to sound more special than it really is".
Out There In The Zone was recorded at SM Jenkins' home in Mittagong, NSW, over the course of a year, the immersive, isolated surrounds shining through in the lament-flecked tunes that have surfaced so far.
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The EP is due for release on Friday 29 April; if you're local (or near enough) to Wollongong, you can catch him in action with Kiwi crew Seth Frightening as well as IE Crazy and Hospital Sports at Rad on Thursday 21 April. See the Facebook event page for further information.
If you dig what you hear, you can find SM Jenkins on Facebook, Soundcloud and Instagram.
