Portland experimentalists Grails will return next year with Chalice Hymnal, their sixth LP and first in six years. In the interim since 2011’s Deep Politics, founders Alex Hall and Emil Amos focused on their sample-heavy psych/hip-hop project Lilacs & Champagne plus Amos’ bands Om and Holy Sons. Now they’ve resurrected the Grails monicker along with cofounder Zak Riles (also of Watter) and crafted another set of all-consuming instrumentals, billed as a stylistic combination of their many creative endeavors. There’s certainly a lot going on in the title track, our first preview of Chalice Hymnal: It’s an ominous, jazzy post-rock float with shades of ’80s movie soundtracks and David Bowie’s “Lazarus.” Listen below.

Tracklist:

01 “Chalice Hymnal”
02 “Pelham”
03 “Empty Chamber”
04 “New Prague”
05 “Deeper Politics”
06 “Tough Guy”
07 “Rebecca”
08 “Deep Snow II”
09 “The Moth & The Flame”
10 “Thorns II”
11 “After The Funeral”

Chalice Hymnal is out 2/17 on Temporary Residence. Pre-order it from the label or iTunes.

CREDIT: Rebecca Steele