Recommended tracks: “Jet Stream Heart”, “Vendetta”, “Glimmer”
For fans of: Pond, Tame Impala, Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Fourteen years into their career, Kettering four-piece Temples have never been content to stay still. Bliss, their fifth studio album released this week, represents their most dramatic lurch yet. The record trades the ornate psych-rock they built their name on for something smoother and considerably more likely to soundtrack a late night descent into the dance floor. Bliss is exhilarating and hypnotic, if occasionally a little hazy. Given the title, that feels entirely intentional.
Temples is built of James Bagshaw, Thomas Walmsley, Adam Smith and Rens Ottink. Signing to V2 Records and producing the album themselves for the first time, Temple’s leant into improvisation and processes that would create a project that felt seamless, tracks bleeding from one onto the next.
The album’s reference points included Massive Attack, Portishead, Underworld, Faithless. Temples have spoken about wanting to capture the “euphoric melancholy” of turn-of-the-millennium European electronica, and those influences ripple throughout the record.
“Jet Stream Heart”, the lead single and opening track, is strong, psych, exciting, and placed accordingly. The tone set for the record calls to mind Tame Impala, and at some points, Daft Punk in a particularly psychedelic mood. Bagshaw’s vocals are processed and floated over the mix in an effortlessly cool, washed out, amber lit kind of way. It is a strong opening statement, with a sound that permeates much of what follows.
From there, Bliss constructs its own mystical world and mostly sticks to it. “Revelations” arrives with choral singing and Gregorian chant, motifs widely deployed in European dance music of the 90s. The result feels hypnotic, recalling the ambient mysticism of Enigma’s music while nodding towards an era of electronic music that prized atmosphere as much as rhythm.
That ritualistic quality and charm runs throughout the record before culminating on closing track “Fantasy Realm”. Bagshaw sings of spiritual journeys, brave new worlds, reality as something to be navigated rather than accepted. By the time “Fantasy Realm” arrives, those ideas have coalesced into a fully realised mythology. The world building on Bliss is one of the album’s greatest strengths.
“Vendetta” arrives around the midpoint and delivers the album’s most satisfying moment of release. It is moody and trance-like but with a propulsive dance energy underneath, rubbing up against disarming synth lines. Rens Ottink’s drumming on “Jaguar” deserves particular mention too, adding muscularity without disrupting the record’s dreamlike flow.
Released at the height of summer, Bliss feels perfectly timed.Rather than chasing heat-soaked festival euphoria, it offers something moodier and more nocturnal: more night-bleeding than sun-drenched. There is something faintly of the indie sleaze revival about it too, that MGMT-adjacent psychedelic warmth that evokes a particular era of UK alternative music with real affection.
Bliss is a flowing, interconnected thing that begins with its finest moment and ends in a fantasy realm. The album’s immersive haze is its central pleasure.
The Bliss 2026 Tour runs through Europe and North America. Full dates and tickets are available on their website.
Bliss Tour Dates:
UK:
June 26 – Brighton, UK – Resident
June 27 – London, UK – Rough Trade Denmark Street
June 28 – Leeds, UK – Crash
June 29 – Nottingham, England – Rough Trade Nottingham
June 30 – Kingston upon Thames, UK – Banquet
July 25 – Southwold, UK – Latitude Festival
November 9 – Bristol, UK – Strange Brew
November 12 – London, UK – Scala
November 13 – Manchester, UK – The White Hotel
November 14 – Glasgow, UK – King Tuts
North America:
September 11 – Austin, TX – Levitation Festival
September 12 – Dallas, TX – Trees
September 15 – Denver, CO – Bluebird Theater
September 17 – Tucson, AZ – La Rosa
September 18 – Pioneertown, CA – Pappy + Harriet’s
September 19 – Los Angeles, CA – Teragram Ballroom
September 20 – San Diego, CA – The Casbah
September 22 – San Francisco, CA – The Chapel
September 23 – San Francisco, CA – The Chapel
September 25 – Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios
September 26 – Seattle, WA – Tractor Tavern
September 27 – Vancouver, BC – The Pearl
November 27 – Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace
November 28 – Montreal, QC – Théâtre Fairmount
November 30 – Boston, MA – The Sinclair
December 2 – Brooklyn, NY – Warsaw
December 3 – Philadelphia, PA – Underground Arts
December 4 – Washington, DC – The Atlantis
December 5 – Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
December 7 – Atlanta, GA – Terminal West
December 8 – Nashville, TN – Cannery @ The Mill
December 9 – Indianapolis, IN – HI-FI Indy
December 10 – Madison, WI – High Noon Saloon
December 11 – Minneapolis, MN – Turf Club
December 12 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall
Europe:
October 11 – Strasbourg, France – La Laiterie
October 13 – Nancy, France – L’Autre Canal
October 14 – Reims, France – La Cartonnerie
October 15 – Lille, France – Aeronef
October 17 – Paris, France – Le Trianon
October 18 – Lausanne, Switzerland – Les Docks
October 19 – Lyon, France – Epicerie Moderne
October 21 – Milan, Italy – Magnolia
October 22 – Bologna, Italy – Locomotiv
October 24 – Munich, Germany – Strom
October 25 – Vienna, Austria – WUK
October 26 – Prague, Czech Republic – Rock Cafe
October 27 – Warsaw, Poland – Niebo
October 29 – Berlin, Germany – Columbia Theater
October 30 – Cologne, Germany – Gebäude 9
November 1 – Eindhoven, Netherlands – De Effenaar
November 3 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Melkweg
November 4 – Nijmegen, Netherlands – Doornroosje
November 5 – Brussels, Belgium – Museum (Botanique)
November 6 – Groningen, Netherlands – Vera
November 17 – Madrid, Spain – Teatro Eslava
November 18 – Zaragoza, Spain – Sala López
November 19 – Granada, Spain – Sala Aliatar
November 20 – Seville, Spain – Sala X
November 21 – Murcia, Spain – Antioxidante La Almazara
November 22 – Barcelona, Spain – Parallel 62
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