Suuns Experiment with Sound on 'FICTION' EP

BY Daniel SylvesterPublished Oct 29, 2020

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"Discovering this lost jam and its power felt like a reminder to keep in the moment and to trust ourselves —you just have to keep moving forward." This is how Suuns drummer, Liam O'Neill, describes "PRAY" — the centrepiece and standout track on his group's latest release, Fiction.

Clocking in at four-and-a-half minutes — making it the longest track on the EP — "PRAY" was recorded during the sessions for their third LP, 2016's Hold/Still, but was held off with the hopes that they could improve it later. The re-working of this jittery, unfolding, thumping anthem proved to be the impetus for this six-song release, as Suuns decided to pull together previously discarded tracks recorded live "off the floor" and liberally rework them. Even though most of the tracks were approached in the same manner, using elements taken into isolation to craft new compositions, Suuns seem to get an almost wholly different result from each piece of work.

The EP's first two tracks, "LOOK" and "BREATHE," both come off shapeless, noisy and free-form, with the former relying on space and ambience while the latter (featuring frequent collaborators Jerusalem in My Heart) uses a muscular sitar to craft their most rock-and-roll riffage to date. The title track is a dusty, county-esque stomper, featuring backmasked vocals, while "DEATH" gives Lightning Dust's Amber Webber a heavy crumble of distortion to croon over. Closing the EP with a cover of "Trouble Every Day" from the Mothers of Invention's 1966 debut Freak Out!  features vocalist/guitarist Ben Shemie speak-growling the lyrics over spacy synth knob-turners.

Although FICTION feels and sounds like more of an experiment than it does an important part of their discography, there's no way to deny that these six tracks demonstrate Suuns' willingness to mess with the way they approach their craft, giving the listener a beacon of hope for future works.
(Secret City Records)

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