If you will excuse the weak pun, Suuns are very much ‘of Montreal’, not the band but the city from whence they originate. Suuns can be cold, aloof and yet surprisingly culturally fulfilling. Their previous offerings Zeroes QC and Images Du Futur saw the Canadian four-piece meld electronica with a raucous melange of guitars, the result being a modern interpretation of krautrock. It may not be one for the cool kids but personally, I loved it.
Hold/Still, however, sees the band adopt or more minimalistic and quite frankly, doom laden view of the world. Quite what disasters have befallen Suuns in the intervening three years to force such a change of tone is not clear but as a goth friend once told me “if you’re gonna be miserable, then be really bloody miserable”. Not that there aren’t echoes to their past work at play on Hold/Still, the opener ‘Fall’ starts off like my old Commodore 64 trying to load Sensible Soccer before the wail of guitars kicks in and the discordant vocals make you wonder if Ben Shemie is actually singing or cleaning his tonsils. By the time the percussion kicks in I’m concerned for the safety of my bowels, the guttural throb is that intense.
It’s as if Suuns are signing in on this familiar note deliberately, offering us a fond farewell to their past sound and then embarking on something altogether more terrifying. ‘UN-NO’ could easily be The XX or Prinzhorn Dance School if it weren’t for the unnerving rising synth line which heightens your senses to impending peril before dropping you back down on a feather bed of soft vocals and relentless bass line. ‘Resistance’ is not only futile but beguiling, an exercise in how to disconcert the listener without ever leaving first gear. It’s the sound of a threatening text message sent via morse code with Shemie repeating “resist” to the point at which you give in and do just what he asks.
‘Translate’ has Shemie impersonating Bobby Gillespie and had ‘Brainwash’ been any simpler it would have become white noise, eventually heading into a cul de sac of its own making. There is very little discernible pattern to Suuns at times yet instead of being irritating this merely opens a wardrobe door to another world. ‘Paralyzer’ is just plain weird, a fusion of Radiohead and Norman Collier and by now the opening track is a distant memory and we’re sailing into unchartered territory. If all this sounds a little too much to bear, let me reassure you, Suuns never have you reaching for the bottle, there is a joy and a warmth buried deep within these tracks if you are prepared to spend the time to live with album across repeated plays.
If you need proof, fast forward to the final two tracks which perhaps offer a further indication of the future path to be followed. ‘Nobody Can Save Me Now‘ is a blues infused dirty descent into depravity and ‘Infinity’ is krautsex, a term I have just invented. Secretly Canadian always have a great roster and Suuns should not be dismissed as a difficult listen, do yourselves a favour, find a dark room, a bag of Kettle Chips and don’t come out until the fifth listen. You’ll thank me for it.
Hold/Still is released on April 15th on Secretly Canadian
