Suuns – 7th Level Music

Review: SUUNS – The Witness

Canadian psych-electro rockers SUUNS were tired in 2019. They had been touring almost non-stop since 2010. They needed to slow down, recharge, and refocus, but they didn’t want to stop making music. So, they stopped, or perhaps were forced to stop due to the pandemic, took a breath, and created The Witness.

Opening track “Third Stream” begins the album with a slow, brooding pace, almost like some of Pink Floyd‘s synth-driven psychedelic cuts. The lyrics tell of checking out from the systemic grind and seeking greater things like peace and love. The drop of the echoing guitar and drum beats on it will grab your attention. The title track, with its bumping electro bass and beats, is a song about watching things fall apart around you and avoiding the temptation to fall into the miasma.

The slow, somewhat creepy beat of “C-Thru” is perfect for late night drinks, meditations, or slow dancing with multiple lovers. “Timebender” mixes birdsong with distant guitar riffs and soft beats for an intriguing track about looking beyond the self.

“Release yourself, remove this shroud. What you see when you look around. Clarity so real, don’t change your mind.” Profound lyrics about in “Clarity,” a nice standout in the middle of the record. According to SUUNS, they’ve been working on “The Fix” for about four years and it finally found a home on The Witness. It’s a strange, quirky track with a beat that seems to shift in about five different directions. In other words, it’s kind of cool. “Go to My Head” combines Bossa nova guitar, subdued electronic beats, and simple lyrics about moving on from a finished romance into a nearly six-minute hypnotic therapy session. The album ends with “The Trilogy” – a song that, the band admits, they just sort of let happen once they got into a groove they all enjoyed. How cool is that?

SUUNS have also admitted that The Witness is a stepping stone of them toward different types of material they want to record and different themes they wish to explore. It’s a good start, and it makes you interested in what they’re planning next – as any good album should.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Patrick from Pitch Perfect PR.]

SUUNS’ release first single,”Pray,” from upcoming EP.

Montreal-based band SUUNS, comprised of Ben Shemie, Joe Yarmush, and Liam O’Neill, announce their new FICTION EP out October 30th via Joyful Noise Recordings, and share the lead single. “PRAY” was recorded during a hot Dallas summer in 2015 with John Congleton, originally for the band’s 2016 album Hold/Still. “It didn’t make the cut, probably because we loved it so much and thought we had an even better version of it in us,” says O’Neill. “We subsequently tried to record multiple versions of this song, none of which captured the unhinged energy of this live-off-the-floor performance. 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.”

SUUNS are future-oriented. New sounds, new techniques, new ways of thinking; above all, new environments are the lifeblood of the band. And true to form, here on the FICTION EP, SUUNS are exploring fresh processes as a result of their current surroundings and global circumstances.

On the FICTION EP, new sounds and sonic directions are fashioned out of old. A year-long period of limited resources and contact inspired the band to reflect on the various environments in which they’ve created music over the years: to comb through their previous sounds and creative approaches, and fuse them together with new ideas, ultimately producing a sort of future/past alchemy. The FICTION EP is as much a project of curation as it is one of creation: sifting, re-imagining, and re-framing, sometimes completely disassembling and then building from the ground up. Each song is a live-off-the-floor recording that was then taken into isolation and re-worked.

As much as the FICTION EP is a project born of introspection and reflection, it’s equally one for which SUUNS sought inspiration from outside. Longtime friend of the band Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (Jerusalem In My Heart), bringing relentless claps and buzuks, leads SUUNS through “BREATHE,” while Amber Webber (Lightning Dust) sings a mournful siren song on the penultimate track, “DEATH.” Finally, the ghost of Frank Zappa lends the band his fervent societal diagnosis, as relevant today as it ever was, on “TROUBLE EVERY DAY.”

Zappa’s darkly prophetic message, repurposed from 1966 to meet our moment, is an apt referent. These dualities, confluences of past and future, of introspection and influence, are what defines the FICTION EP. Produced from old remnants, it is entirely new; done in relative isolation, and is also something of a live record. The songs have been meticulously reworked, and yet the entire collection feels deployed with hardly any reflection, done in one breath. It’s the sound of SUUNS regrouping, and then poised, and then driving towards the future.

The FICTION EP is the first preview of more new music to come in 2021.
Stream “PRAY”:
https://youtu.be/pY56vaNYCVE

Pre-order FICTION EP:
http://joyfulnoi.se/FICTION

FICTION EP Tracklist:
1. LOOK
2. BREATHE (feat. Jerusalem In My Heart)
3. PRAY
4. FICTION
5. DEATH (feat. Amber Webber)
6. TROUBLE EVERY DAY

Keep your mind open.

[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Suuns’ new album, “Felt,” is due March 2nd, but the first single is out now.

Suuns Announce New Album, Felt, Out March 2nd On Secretly Canadian

Watch Video For Lead Single “Watch You, Watch Me”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUCtZNoj_ww

[Photo by Joseph Yarmush]

Suuns are pleased to announce their new album, Felt, coming out March 2nd on Secretly Canadian. Singer/guitarist Ben Shemie says, “This record is definitely looser than our last one [2016’s Hold/Still]. It’s not as clinical. There’s more swagger.” You can hear this freedom flowing through the 11 tracks on Felt. It’s both a continuation and rebirth, the Montreal quartet returning to beloved local facility Breakglass Studios (where they cut their first two albums [Zeroes QC and Images Du Futur] with Jace Lasek of The Besnard Lakes) but this time recording themselves at their own pace, over five fertile sessions spanning several months. A simultaneous stretching out and honing in, mixed to audiophile perfection by St Vincent producer John Congleton (helmer of Hold/Still), who flew up especially from Dallas to deploy his award-winning skills in situ.

Felt lead single “Watch You, Watch Me” debuts today via NPR Music. The song showcases an organic/synthetic rush that builds and builds atop drummer Liam O’Neill’s elevatory rhythm. O’Neill exclaims, “It was different and exciting. In the past, there was a more concerted effort on my part to drum in a controlled and genre-specific way. Self-consciously approaching things stylistically. Us doing it ourselves, that process was like a very receptive, limitless workshop to just try out ideas.”

Complementing O’Neill are the ecstatic, Harmonia-meets-Game Boy patterns unleashed by electronics mastermind Max Henry. Eschewing presets, Henry devised fresh sounds for each song on Felt while also becoming a default musical director, orchestrating patches and oscillations. Quietly enthusing about “freaky post-techno” and Frank Ocean’s use of space, he’s among your more modest studio desk jockeys: “Yeah, I sat in the control room while the others played – hitting ‘record’ and ‘stop’. It also gave me the flexibility to move parts around and play with effects. I do have a sweet tooth for pop music.”

Accompanying “Watch You, Watch Me” is a video directed by Russ Murphy. “Often we think we know peoples’ faces well, especially casual acquaintances but when we stop and really stare at them they start to look different to us,” says Murphy. “I wanted the video to give you that slightly odd feeling and also the uncomfortable feeling of being watched. Mainly I wanted it to be a crazy, frenetic & unsettling like the track itself.”

Suuns are proud of their roots in Canada’s most socialist province, whilst not sounding quite like anything else the city has produced. Quebecois natives Shemie and Joseph Yarmush founded the group just over a decade ago, the latter having moved to Montreal from a nearby village. The only member not to be formally schooled in jazz, guitarist Yarmush studied photography and utilized his visual training to help realize Shemie’s novel concept for the eye-catching album artwork.

“I was at a barbecue last summer and there were balloons everywhere,” recalls the singer. “I like this idea of pressure, resistance, and pushing against something just before it brakes. And there is something strangely subversive about a finger pushing into a balloon. It seemed to fit the vibe of the record we were making. We made plaster casts of our hands, going for a non-denominational statue vibe. Joe came up with the colour scheme, the sickly green background, and shot the whole cover in an hour.”

It’s a suitably outré image for Felt, which breaks with Suuns’ earlier darkness for a more optimistic ambience. The record’s playful atmosphere is echoed by its double meaning title. “Some people might think of the material,” muses Ben. “I like that that could be misconstrued. Also it’s to have felt and not to feel – a little introspective, but that feeling’s in the past.”

Watch Suuns’ “Watch You, Watch Me” Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUCtZNoj_ww

Felt Tracklist:
1. Look No Further
2. X-ALT
3. Watch You, Watch Me
4. Baseline
5. After the Fall
6. Control
6. Make It Real
8. Daydream
9. Peace and Love
10. Moonbeams
11. Materials

Tour Dates:
Fri. Feb. 9 – St-Casimir, Canada @ La Taverne
Fri. Feb. 16 – Trois-Rivieres, Canada @ Le Zenob
Sat. Feb. 17 – Gatineau, Canada @ Le Minotaure
Sat. Mar. 3 – Guadalajara, Mexico @ Festin de Los Munecos
Wed. Mar. 7 – St-Hyacinthe, Canada @ Le Zaricot
Sun. Mar. 25 – Knoxville, Tennessee @ BIG EARS FESTIVAL
Thu. Mar. 29 – Rome, Italy @ Monk Club
Fri. Mar. 30 – Milan, Italy @ Magnolia
Sat. Mar. 31 – Winterthur, Switzerland @ Salzhaus
Sun. Apr. 1 – Marseille, France @ Espace Julien
Tue. Apr. 3 – Saint-Malo, France @ Nouvelle Vague
Wed. Apr. 4 – Paris, France @ Elysee Montmarte

Thu. Apr. 5 – London, United Kingdom @ Scala

Fri. Apr. 6 – Brussels, Belgium @ Le Botanique
Sat. Apr. 7 – The Hague, Netherlands @ Rewire Festival
Sun. Apr. 8 – Koln, Germany @ Gebaude 9
Mon. Apr. 9 – Hamburg, Germany @ Molotow Musikclub
Tue. Apr. 10 – Berlin, Germany @ Festsaal Kreuzberg
Wed. Apr. 11 – Istanbul, Turkey @ Babylon

Felt artwork

Pre-order Felt – suuns.lnk.to/felt

Rewind Review: Suuns and Jerusalem in My Heart (2015)

Two Montreal psychedelic powerhouses, four-piece Suuns and producer Radwan Gahzi Mounmeh (otherwise known as Jerusalem in My Heart), teamed up in 2012 (but didn’t release the collaboration until three years later) to create a new project that mixes Suuns’ rock aesthetic with Mounmeh’s tripped-out Middle Eastern sounds. It’s mind and tongue twisting.

What do I mean? Well, the first track is titled “2amoutu I7tirakan.” The numbers are used to reflect Arabic sounds that have no good western written translation. The track sounds like a forgotten relic from Vangelis’ Blade Runner score. “Metal” is a great cut that shows how western rock and Middle Eastern beats can work so well together. “Self” blends Middle Eastern chanting with weird electro-blip percussion. “In Touch,” with its almost subliminal bass and building beats, is perfectly suited for playing in the glass elevator you’re taking to the upper floors of the casino hotel to meet your lover / the contract killer you’ve hired.

“Gazelles in Flight” begins with what sounds like a film reel flapping after it’s made its run through a projector. It builds into weird insect-like sounds and then into something that sounds like a Claudio Simonetti giallo film score track from the 1980’s. It’s wonderfully weird. The album closes with “3attam Babey,” an eight-minute track of desert mirages and a mix of touches from the likes of Bauhaus, Joy Division, and early Pink Floyd.

One of the most incredible things about this mind warp of a record is that it was recorded in one week back in 2012. One week! A longer team-up between them may produce something that can transport us to the astral plane. I hope they do this soon. I’d love to check out that place.

Keep your mind open.

[You’ll always be in my heart if you subscribe.]

Suuns’ new album due out this April.

Canadian psych-rockers Suuns have started a PledgeMusic campaign and a Bandcamp page for their upcoming album Hold / Still. The first two released tracks, “Translate” and “Paralyzer,” are good cuts that lace their weird psychedelic sound with electro touches. Hold / Still is sure to be a good record if the rest of the tracks are as good as these.

Keep your mind open.

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