Video Premiere: Cosmic Reef Temple – “Wave Constellation”
When Earth’s gnarly pounders no longer get you stoked, what else can you do but paddle out into the vast ocean of space? We’re going surfing with the alien (no, not that Satriani nerd, what are you, a dad?) in this exclusive video premiere.
Shortly after their landing craft settles on exoplanet R-4D1KL’s immense ocean, Cosmic Reef Temple‘s members smoke a few large blunts in the claustrophobic vessel. Properly prepared to greet new lifeforms, they unseal the hatch and breathe in an atmosphere of pure oxygen. (And thank goodness, they only packed swim trunks and cut-off T-shirts after forgetting the astronaut gear back home.)
They unlatch their surfboards from the craft and slide into the ocean, slightly apprehensive of the liquid’s purple glow (and does this fluid have a heartbeat?) A voice like waves retreating from a shoreline speaks in their minds.
Shall there be surfing, my intrepid travelers?
The band shares concerned looks, raising the shaka sign with trembling hands. A ripple spreads across the surface, and shortly after, a strange creature emerges. The organism’s head (if it can be called that) is an open, toothless maw, not unlike a basking shark’s, but the resemblance stops there. Its skin is coated in a garish turquoise membrane, and gill openings flutter all along its serpentine form, capped with a single flipper. The critter slides towards them across the water(?) on long, narrow appendages. (Although their memories are somewhat hazy, the band later summed up its appearance quite succinctly: “like a sentient pool noodle riding on water-skis.”)
It stops beside the band and a prehensile tongue snakes from its mouth; the appendage splits into 6 filaments which it uses to gently massage the ocean’s surface. A deafening laughter explodes in the humans’ heads, and the liquid starts to churn around them. The noodle-thing catches a wave and shoots off into the distance, uttering a single squeal of excitement before plunging back into the depths.
Before we get started, the voice says, I think we’ll want some music. Take a sip. I promise I’m safe. I swear on the progeny of Xôq.
One by one, the band-mates cup their hands and bring the liquid to their mouths. As they stand to ride the gentle surf, a faint strumming sounds in the distance, cloaked in reverb. A leisurely drum groove soon follows, and a saxophone croons in its alien language. The humans hang 10 like never before.
For carbon-based life, you’re all handling me very well. Usually you’re the first to start flip–
A rush of impossible images bombards their minds. The knowledge, stories and faces of a million space-faring races flash by as the drums become a cacophony; the saxophone, so recently at peace, roars in anguish. The music crests in a crescendo of surf guitar tremolos before the waters begin to still. Coming down, Cosmic Reef Temple is not sure what they have experienced. They paddle slowly back to their vessel. The voice follows them in their skulls.
I am truly sorry, there’s always a bit of residue from my previous visitors. Will you make me a promise before you go? Will you tell your world about the song we wrote together today? I’ve decided to call it “Wave Constellation.” What do you think?
Cosmic Reef Temple’s self-titled split with Shrinkwrap Killers is out on Wave Guardian Records on October 2.
