Free Release Friday
Suns: The Howl and the Many & Close Calls in the U.S. Space Program
2010, Self-Released
Available as a free download here.
Rating: 8.3 / 7.5
The only appropriate adjective for Suns would be ‘savage.’ And while the term is appropriate enough, it wouldn’t do justice to the absolute immensity that embodies the intensity of the band on these two releases. This set of free EPs, The Howl and the Many and Close Calls in the U.S. Space Program, mine the intersection of Dischord-era post-punk and Radiohead-inspired, postmodern ‘alternative.’ The reaction is nothing short of inspired and confounding–music for the imaginative, emotional listener.
The two EPs are disparate works, though they are the product of the first year of work of the band. They span similar territory: thick, dark guitars and a hulking rhythm section ripple beneath the shimmery highs of harmonium and synthesizer, creating an atmospheric sound that would draw easy comparisons to their Radiohead and Sigur Rós inspiration. But the immediate comparisons stop there, as the band’s backbone is an aggression that can only be compared to brooding post-punk acts like Fugazi or Jawbox.
The result is a band whose first two EPs feel truly imaginative and emotional, finding an appropriate depth and height that hasn’t been measured before. The results are particularly interesting on The Howl and the Many, a basement-recorded affair that feels severe in only the best possible way. The band employs an energy that has all of the effect of thin streams of blood running across a face after a fight, and echo all of the enthusiasm of the swift run to safety afterward.
Close Calls in the U.S. Space Program is a bit more controlled by virtue of its studio recording efforts, a ploy that streamlines the band’s sound, but increases the tension between the care paid to the songs and the restraint of the arrangements. Clearly Close Calls in the U.S. Space Program feels like the professional effort, and it suffers from all the limitations that The Howl and the Many does not. The brooding tension between the careful precision of the lead guitar and the rest of the band on Close Calls in the U.S. Space Program seems almost distracting in contrast to the unrestrained energy behind the loose arrangements of The Howl and the Many.
At their core, Suns have turned in amazing debut EPs and show amazing energy as a band. These releases show not only promise, but hearken a musical identity that has not yet been born.
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Louis Korom IV is a writer and designer living in Denton, Texas.
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