The hooks are there, but they're layers deep, below noise and distorted beds of rhythm. The guitars in Suuns are just texture machines that sound ugly and boiling hot, but push the whole thing over. There's constant pulsing, between drum machines and synthetic stabs of WTF. Drones mix with nutso dance beats, and it crushes.
Vocalist/guitarist Ben Shemie is an arresting figure who connects with a microphone with intimate intensity. He's coiled to strike like Guy Picciotto, and his subtle guitar picking/stabbing is the perfect complement to Joe Yarmush's more pronounced, foundational playing.
The rhythmic attack is deceptively dull and muddy. At the Ship, the whole room throbbed as the low end threatened to sink us all, but the brightness on top floated like a multicoloured smoke machine smoke, a signal and beacon for people to cling to.
The joy in the sound of Suuns is definitely there but, as it was in St. John's, it's accessible via dedicated excavation.
Vocalist/guitarist Ben Shemie is an arresting figure who connects with a microphone with intimate intensity. He's coiled to strike like Guy Picciotto, and his subtle guitar picking/stabbing is the perfect complement to Joe Yarmush's more pronounced, foundational playing.
The rhythmic attack is deceptively dull and muddy. At the Ship, the whole room throbbed as the low end threatened to sink us all, but the brightness on top floated like a multicoloured smoke machine smoke, a signal and beacon for people to cling to.
The joy in the sound of Suuns is definitely there but, as it was in St. John's, it's accessible via dedicated excavation.