Psychedelic rock albums have been practically non-existent for 2008, sans the excellent Black Mountain album, which still gets a few spins from me each week. I happened to be browsing through the iTunes store and came across a San Francisco band called Sleepy Sun. All it took was listening to a few samples for me to know this record was going to be exactly what I was looking for. Drowned out vocals, guitar-driven, percussion-filled, and just a complete spacey sound.
The comparisons to Black Mountain are going to be imminent, however this seems to be a much deeper album. This band's vocals are a lot more enjoyable and everything just seems to flow so well together. One thing that I absolutely love is the addition of harmonica.
Embrace is 8 tracks long so you're not going to find any filler. There are a few lengthy tracks(longest track 9:23), but you never feel to the point where you get bored with any track. A huge selling point to me is that the entire thing clocks in right around 47 min. One of the major flaws regarding a lot of psychedelic rock records these days is that they're drawn out for an unnecessary amount of time. Right from the first chord, this album pulls you in and doesn't let go. It appears as though it's only available on iTunes right now, but should be in stores later this month. Highly recommended, especially with headphones. At a price of 7.92, this album is a steal. Below is their myspace link to get an idea of their sound:
http://www.myspace.com/sleepysun
Track list:
1. New Age
2. Lord
3. Red/Black
4. Sleepy Son
5. Golden Artifact
6. White Dove
7. Snow Goddess
8. Duet With the Northern Sky
RIYL: Black Mountain, The Besnard Lakes
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1 comment:
I just bought the album as well, and it IS fantastic. It's both very soft and very hard, and transitions rapidly between drum solos and harmonica and psychedelic walls of sound, yet they've made all of it fit and flow.
Also, this isn't simply a new age psychedelic band using the wonders of studio editing to make themselves sound impressive. Everyone in the band can actually PLAY; guitarist, drummer, bassist, and vocalist all have moments where they show off serious abilities. In particular, the guitar and drum solos surprised me; not many psychedelic bands these days can play like that.
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