Death Valley Girls return after a hiatus caused by the California wildfires with a stripped-back sound on this taster of new album Welcome To Earth.

As a fan of the largely underrated value of repetition in music, I’m loving this new tune by The Death Valley Girls. Moving away from the fuzzy psychedelia that characterises their sound – “California doom boogie” as they call it – it’s a more stripped-back affair.

Built around the simplest of components: an insistent bass and drums, guitar and synth, and the occasional sax, it’s almost a West Coast variation on white funk.

If the message in Bonnie Bloomgarden’s lyric seems optimistic – “Live free or fight, Love free or die,  Live how you love, It’s alright, This is your life” – it’s an illusion.

Message From The Venus Flower is about the loss of her beloved dog Tommy, mourning her death and celebrating their spiritual connection.

Bloomgarden lost her dog soon after losing her home in LA’s San Gabriel Valley – destroyed in the devastating wildfires 18 months ago.

“After the fire Tommy, my best friend and dog, was not the same,” she says. “I didn’t bring her medicine when we evacuated ’cause I didn’t bring anything, not even my phone or car.

It was weeks before she could return to the smouldering wreckage of what had once been her home, finding everything destroyed. The dog seemed to feel it as much as her.

“I wasn’t sure if she was hurting because she wasn’t on her medicine, or if she was scared, or if she didn’t know why we left our home and was mad at me!”

Less than a year later, Tommy died. “I was broken. I had officially lost everything to 2025.”

Soon afterwards, Bloomgarden came across a Venus flower while walking (aka a butterfly pea) and – bear with me here – became convinced it was the reincarnation of Tommy.

The song is taken from forthcoming album Welcome To Earth, inspired by the wildfires but from a positive point of view, celebrating the invisible threads linking people, animals, memories, landscapes and lives across time.

The now-all-female band consists of Bloomgarden on vocals and organ, guitarist Laena Mers, bassist Alana Amram, saxophonist Sarah Safaie and – until his death just after completing the album – keyboardist Gregg Foreman.

Longtime collaborator Laura “The Kid” Kelsey returns throughout the album, as well as Little Ghost, who was equally central to the process, contributing backing vocals and creating the album artwork.

The video, with its retro vibe, features none of the band but is performed by a dance troupe called the Rated Z Dancers.