The Hologram People – Bongo Express / Afternoon Sniper

There’s a certain magic that happens when a band with a reputation for sprawling cosmic grandeur pares things down to their essence. When the incense clears, and the fog machines sputter out, all that’s left is groove, atmosphere, and instinct. With their latest seven inch offering, ‘Bongo Express’ backed with ‘Afternoon Sniper’, The Hologram People have traded their mountaintop ceremonies and starward gazes for something a little more grounded — but no less transporting.

This is a different flavour of trip. Less sacred rite, more international psych-funk caper. Imagine slipping through a late-60s psychedelic heist flick, dubbed straight from reel-to-reel onto wax. There’s a swagger here, a louche confidence that doesn’t shout but smirks from across the room. If Sacred Ritual to Unlock the Mountain Portal was about elevation — spiritual, sonic, stratospheric — then this new double-header is all about the sway. The sway of hips. The sway of shadows. The sway of palm fronds in a sultry breeze that smells faintly of vinyl and vermouth.

And still, unmistakably, this is The Hologram People. Dom Keen and Jonathan Parkes are carving new grooves into the wax, but the hands guiding the stylus are the same — deft, knowing, and gently mischievous. The textures are intact. The attention to sonic detail is all here. But now, the ritual space is a mysterious smoke filled lounge instead of a misty mountain.

On Side A ‘Bongo Express’ is a laid-back, fuzz-fuelled exotic jam that’s thick with Eastern promise. Strutting in like a mirage over hot sands, shimmering guitars dipped in delay, bongo rhythms bubbling beneath like heat from a cracked desert floor. This track isn’t about propulsion — it’s about suspension. You don’t race down the rails here, you glide along them, hypnotised by the swirling blend of eastern-inflected melody and cosmic cool. There’s a narcotic quality to the repetition, something trance-inducing in the way the melody drifts and curls. And that production — lo-fi in all the right places, like it’s being broadcast from a lost psych-funk archive deep beneath Marrakesh. It’s smooth. It’s sensual. It’s The Hologram People doing what they do best: evoking landscapes of the mind.

The flipside slinks in with attitude. ‘Afternoon Sniper’ rides a funky wave of laid-back bass grooves, bouncy bongo, and locked-in drums that carry an irresistible strut. There’s a noirish energy here — playful but a little dangerous. It’s music for the psychic cat burglar in all of us. Where ‘Bongo Express’ conjured dusty sun-soaked travels, ‘Afternoon Sniper’ lives in the twilight. Its groove is loose yet exact, with guitar stabs and echo-drenched melodies dancing in and out of earshot like shadows slipping behind alleyway corners.

What’s so glorious about this release is how effortless it feels. These are two short tracks — modest in scale, yet bursting with atmosphere. With this seven inch, The Hologram People shift from shamanic space travellers to jet-setting psych-groovers, all without missing a beat. They’ve always had the ability to soundtrack journeys both real and imagined, but with ‘Bongo Express’ and ‘Afternoon Sniper’, they invite you not on a pilgrimage, but a holiday — albeit one scored by mystics, draped in incense, and set to tape on a vintage reel-to-reel player in a sun-bleached villa.

So, my fellow psychonauts: grab this one while you can. Limited pressings like this have a habit of vanishing into the ether before you’ve had your morning coffee.

‘Bongo Express’ is out on 27^th May 2025 via the ever-amazing Feral Child Label (note to self: they warrant a blog all to themselves). Make sure and head over to The Hologram People Bandcamp Page and give em a follow!

You can follow The Hologram People on social media here….

• Bandcamp