The “Evils Highway EP” features five tracks which were apparently inspired by a lucid nightmare—a one-way trip to hell—wherein the writer found himself on a desolate desert highway, only to hitch a ride with a psychotic Elvis Presley type character who is referred to in the sleeve notes only as ‘Evils’.

The sound of the record is a fusion of Suicide-esque electro desert rock, with shades of early Thin White Rope, the Velvet Underground and Neu all in the mix for good measure. According to Bloodjoy, percussive influence largely stemmed from the sound of desert crickets, and there’s an undeniable faint flicker of the ‘King’ himself crooning deep down within the vocals alongside the late-great Alan Vega—who Rhys cites as a key inspiration in the vocal delivery on this particular release.

Sonics aside, the “Evils Highway EP” also marks a stylistic change in the Bloodjoy approach, with Rhys no longer restricting himself to creating beats solely by hitting the body of his acoustic guitar—but instead, allowing himself to use sample pads to play the beats and percussion directly into his complex chain of looper pedals. This change is evident straight from the opening bars of lead single, ‘I Believe I Can Die‘.

Time will tell if this is a one-off approach, or the dawning of a new era in the Bloodjoy style and sound—but right now, “Evils Highway” is calling, and it’s a thematically terrifying and thrilling journey that you’ll no doubt want to repeat time and time again…