Temples - Sun Structures (RSD 2024)

10th Anniversary of Temples top 10 record 'Sun Structures.'

A brand new double-vinyl edition (X2 LP coloured vinyl edition with mirr-board sleeve) of Temples top 10, critically acclaimed debut album 'Sun Structures' is being released for Record Store Day, 2024.

'Sun Structures' was originally released in the spring of 2013, and features the singles 'Shelter Song', 'Colours To Life', 'Keep In The Dark' and 'Mesmerise'. The RSD edition includes a download of the album and 'Sun Restructured' - Beyond The Wizard Sleeves (Erol Alkan and Richard Norris) re-imagination of this classic debut.

"Doing something different with a pop song, breaking the convention of verses and choruses– it's something we always keep in mind when we're recording,” said bassist Tom Warmsley, who founded Temples with singer/guitarist James Bagshaw in the summer of 2012.

Looking like a West Coast psych band, Temples arrived with all the hallmarks of cosmic travellers. There's the band name, for starters, there are track titles that sound like JG Ballard novels (Prisms, The Golden Throne, Sun Structures) and there's the fact that they take incense sticks on the road with them. But if all of the above suggests Temples are backwards-lookin, think again. The Kettering four-piece's debut is a mix of scuzzy glam stomp, dreamy, 12-string-drenched folk-rock, droning psych and more – all given a 2013 spin.

It's a record that set out the band's stall as Britain's premier retro-futurists, with influences ranging from '60s psychedelia to Motown, glam, Krautrock and baggy, all viewed through a very modern kaleidoscope – and always keeping the song at the heart of it all. "We still want songs to be songs.” The key, says James, is innovation. "We never want to re-do the same thing, use the same formula as a previous song. We're always looking hard to better ourselves."

“I wrote a song for thee,” frontman James Edward Bagshaw offers on this U.K. band’s debut. As his archaic address implies, Temples play mid-Sixties psych rock at its most archly transporting. Every swirling fuzz tone, cathedral-organ bleat and Harrisonian Rickenbacker run is perfectly placed. There are also shambling echoes of Britain’s Nineties “baggydelic” scene- Jon Doland of Rollingstone.

Album Reviews

“’Sun Structures’ tapestry drifts effortlessly before the ears, presenting a sustained grandeur of Temples’ vision, lyrics and musicality”
- DIY Magazine ★★★★ -

“A truly mesmerising debut album… James Bagshaw’s crooning vocals take you on a stroll along an LA beach, which climaxes around an English campfire, at Stonehenge, on the Summer Solstice… It’s the sound of ’60s experimentation smashed stunningly into the present day.”
- Clash Magazine 9/10 -

“Retro futurism par excellence… Temples [have] truly mastered the sonic tics of psychedelia”
Uncut Magazine ★★★★ -

"Sun Structures is the best slice of neo-psychedelia since Tame Impala’s Lonerism… It sounds like the rainbow refraction of a prism; like Cleopatra riding a camel made of glass. It sounds like the forefront of the modern psychedelic revolution.”
- Alt Sounds ★★★★ -

"Impressive debut album from the kings of the current psychedelic revival"
- Louder Than War 10/10 -