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A groovy and laid back album, containing the odd surprise. The opening number Armed For Peace sets the tone very well, combining as it does a fuzzy, bleepy keyboard sound (which has a slacker vibe smeared all over it), a swooping guitar riff and a sonorous beat. In one way it sounds very much like a Beta Band recording (as do a number of tracks on here: Up Past the Nursery has a Beta Band feel too). The monotonous beat continues with Gaze, a determined piece built round a sluggish and faintly menacing guitar descend. Soft voices (the singer has a very unassuming, mid-range voice that doesn’t really click with the gloomy soundtracks the band create).
Suuns are in love with setting out long meditative tracks that are more about mood and creating a simple, effective setting, rather than setting out to grab the listener by any flash trick. It’s very solid, simply-built music. Arena is a standard workout to a mid tempo beat that reminds me of Buffalo Daughter, especially when the voice comes in (as does the guitar lick on Marauder, wonder if they’ve heard that Buffalo Daughter LP?) And Pie IX is a nice little lullaby set over a wobbly bass synth noise & a metronomic beat. You get the picture.
Best tracks on here are Sweet Nothing, an atonal meditation which owes a bit to Suicide, Cluster or Neu!, (which band doesn’t these days, we ask) and PVC which is a low temperature dance track with a great slab of guitar noise to lift things up a notch now and then. The last two tracks, Fear & Organ Blues are very introspective and can let you down with a bump, so watch out.
Pleasant enough, that’s for sure.