Budapest-based quartet, Nunki Bay Starship sets the bar high with their new album called From a Proper Distance. As they explain, the title refers to the physical distance that we all experienced in the last 1,5 year as well as to the solution of our internal, invisible struggles – after all, every problem seems tiny from the right distance. On their second material, they tried to be as plain as four well-rounded musicians coming from different backgrounds could be and fulfil their desire for a more cohesive sound. Dóri (singer/electric violin) explains:
“Musically, we had very similar ideas in our minds about where to go next. And the lyrics are all related to things I’ve been struggling with for years, so it has become a kind of therapeutic record for me now, thanks again to the others for letting me do that.”
So among the topics, they cover we can find a Buddhist expression: monkey mind; fighting against oppression; afterlife and they wander to fields like what happens in our mind when we’re in a coma and how to process the problems we wanted to forget about, but often pop up when we can’t fall asleep.
The lead single of the album is called Monkeys – it’s about meditation and was named after a Buddhist metaphor, “monkey mind”. Everyone has crazy monkeys in their brain that always jump around – these monkeys are actually our zigzagging thoughts that we can’t keep in a cage but should quiet them down for which meditation is the most effective solution. So the video shows frontwoman Dóri meditating in the middle of a crazy house party, trying to tame her monkeys and find her inner peace.
With listening to From a Proper Distance we can also face our problems and look at them from a different angle and musically what we hear is a mix of pop, neo-soul, jazz with some psychedelic and r&b flavours. As serious as it seems, what we get from this album is pure joy and a bit of a relief that we’re not alone in this universe with our struggles.
