Bitchin Bajas Blend Psychedelia and Jazz in Boundary-Pushing New Album

In the past 15 years, the Chicago psychedelic trio Bitchin Bajas has been known for its hypnotic, horizontally sprawling sound. The band—composed of Cooper Crain, Rob Frye, and Dan Quinlivan—would typically lock into iridescent loops with their keyboards and explore the possibilities, allowing inevitable shifts to happen over time.

However, the group's latest album, "Inland See," released in 2022, showcases a more songful direction for the band. This evolution began in 2017 when Bitchin Bajas covered Sun Ra's "Angels and Demons at Play" on their album "Bajas Fresh." This opened up the band's methodology, allowing a more developed melodic sense to emerge from their cascading zone-outs.

Building on this new approach, Bitchin Bajas recently released "Switched on Ra," interpreting eight more Sun Ra compositions, and collaborated with fellow Chicago group Natural Information Society on the album "Totality." Their latest effort, "Inland See," benefits significantly from this expanded sonic palette. The four tracks on the album feature more repetition of entire phrases rather than just small arpeggiated figures, giving the music a more songwriterly feel. Peaks and valleys now take the place of constant expansion, creating a more dynamic listening experience.

While Bitchin Bajas' music still swirls together into billowing masses, full of slow-cycling envelopes and acutely arranged bleeps and bloops, the band has managed to strike a balance between their signature hypnotic focus and a more melodic sensibility. For perhaps the first time in their catalog, there are parts of "Inland See" that can get stuck in the listener's head.