The Holydrug Couple

Emerging from Chile’s early 2010s psychedelic rock wave, the Holydrug Couple fashioned a sound that conjures the ethereal natural landscapes of their native country. Based in Santiago, Ives Sepúlveda and Manuel Parra shaped a drifting, occasionally blues-tinged aesthetic into a delicate, looping weave of guitar, drums, and vocals, earning a contract with the American imprint Sacred Bones and issuing notable works such as the expansive 2017 release Soundtrack for Pantanal.

The pair formed in 2008 and introduced themselves in 2011 via the self-issued Awe, which soon attracted the attention of the eclectic Brooklyn label Sacred Bones; there they unveiled the Ancient Land EP the next year. Working from their home studio, they delivered Noctuary in early 2013, their inaugural full-length on Sacred Bones, accompanied by a BYM cassette of album demos.

Following extensive road work, the group issued the limited lathe-cut 7" single “Everyone Knows All” b/w “Quetzal” in 2014. Their second Sacred Bones album, Moonlust, was introduced by the singles “Dreamy” and “Baby, I'm Going Away” and appeared in May. Calling it an “unreal group of songs for one of the best non-existing movies of all time,” the duo released the ambitious Soundtrack for Pantanal in 2017. Taking cues from classic pop albums of the ’60s and ’70s, the Holydrug Couple brought their introspective psychedelic approach to a more melodic collection on 2018’s Hyper Super Mega.