Canadian band Nap Eyes share ‘Dark Mystery Enigma Bird’, the final single from upcoming album The Neon Gate. Stumbling across Nap Eyes is like finally finding that perfect vintage denim jacket that you’ve spent months looking for; something that feels distantly familiar, yet takes on a new life, and you know that it’s a piece that will spend a long time with you. That’s the feeling that the quartet’s curious brand of indie slacker pop conveys, particularly with their newest release ‘Dark Mystery Enigma Bird’. It comes just a couple of weeks ahead of their fifth LP The Neon Gate, and stands as an intriguing representative for the record’s internal ecosystem of physics, philosophy, soliloquies, meditations and video games. The track plays with the sensation of opening your eyes when you’ve been interrupted from a dream state, and you’re trying to reconcile that subconscious soft play with reality. Early Animal Crossing-esque notes frolic in pockets of pattering percussion for a tight, lo-fi groove which ripples beneath humble acoustic strumming and a subtle bassline. Stretching to accommodate echoing synth sirens and wandering flute improv, the instrumentation feels led by instinct. Despite everything going on, it never feels heavy or excessive. It provides a technicolour backdrop to singer Nigel Chapman’s vocal tone, which exercises a depth and deliberate monotony reminiscent of the delivery of Smog. ‘Dark Mystery Enigma Bird’ is something of a Nap Eyes folk tale, which reveals the perspective of the titular Enigma Bird and its observations, which are illustrated in a Beavis and Butthead meets The Midnight Gospel-style music video. The track is an odyssey into Nap Eyes’ higher consciousness, an engrossing experience of esoteric childlike wonder. The Neon Gate is due on October 18th, and it is shaping up to be a stunner. -Kayla Sandiford