Posted in Whathaveyou on November 8th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
If you’ve been paying attention to Sun Voyager‘s steady flux of social media whatnot around the recent release of their self-titled album (review here) through Ripple Music, you’ve probably seen them mention in passing that they’ve been working with “local shredder” Christian Lopez (seen below at their Halloween gig) for shows over the last couple months. Savvy as they are, it seems likely this was intended to focus the conversation not on what is actually a pretty significant shift in their lineup, replacing now-former frontman Carlos Francisco, with someone who hasn’t, you know, been in the band for the past decade with bassist/sometimes-vocalist Stefan Mersch and drummer Kyle Beach, but on the release of their finest work to-date, even if the personnel shift means it’s also the end of an era for them and whatever they do next will invariably be affected by the change.
It should be noted that’s not necessarily a bad thing, and given their work up to this point in the studio and on stage, I have no trouble trusting Sun Voyager on picking a new guitarist and singer. They’re not a band who does things haphazardly — see also: their waiting to get distance from the album release before making this change official — and if the end result here is they can do more shows, explore different approaches and styles and ultimately come out of it a stronger group, well, that’s the whole idea, I guess.
I’m not going to take away from what the band accomplished with Francisco at all, and neither should anyone else. I don’t know the full situation here, but sometimes these things happen and all you can do is wish everyone the best going forward. Sun Voyager might want to film a live video or something like that in the next month or so, just to let their audience have some idea of where they’re at as a unit when it comes to live performances (at least I know I’m curious), but there’s time for these things yet.
For now, here’s them marking the occasion:
Sun Voyager welcomes bona fide shredlord Christian Lopez into its ranks. He’s been ripping with us for a couple months, nailing the sound, and has our infinite gratitude for embarking on this voyage. He does great work with guitars as @calivibescustom too. Help us give him a warm welcome.
[Click play above to stream Sun Voyager’s Sun Voyager in its entirety. Album is out tomorrow, Oct. 7, on Ripple Music.]
A decade after they started writing songs for their first demo, New York State cosmic grunge rockers Sun Voyager offer their self-titled second album as their first outing through Ripple Music. Momentum is the key. Where their 2018 full-length debut, Seismic Vibes (review here), launched at a medium pace before hitting the space-rock sprint of “Open Road” and “Caves of Steel,” Sun Voyager both picks up where that album left off, starting with a jam on Seismic Vibes finale “God is Dead” which, as “God is Dead II,” introduces new melodic complexity to the immediately far-outbound progression of swirling guitars and, crucially, rhythmic thrust.
The returning-perhaps-for-the-last-time trio of guitarist/vocalist Carlos Francisco — his role has of late been filled by Christian Lopez, and indications are that will continue, though the situation seems fluid and no grand announcements have been made — bassist/keyboardist/backing vocalist Stefan Mersch, and drummer Kyle Beach offer radical thrust throughout the new seven-song/32-minute, basic-tracks-recorded-live blazer, giving Philly’s Ecstatic Vision a run for their alien currency in terms of building and maintaining a throughline of motion in and between their pieces, while still allowing each enough breadth to make an individual impression. That is, “Run for Your Life,” which follows “God is Dead II,” is fast, but that doesn’t mean it’s immediately forgettable, and the same holds true for the effects-soaked “Some Strange,” which is one of just two cuts to pass the five-minute mark; the other is the jammy slowdown moment “Feeling Alright” on side B.
It’s not that Sun Voyager — I’m having a hard time not calling the album Sunny V, so I hope you’ll please bear with me if one slips through — isn’t dynamic or doesn’t let you breathe. Both “Some Strange” and “Feeling Alright” have comedown parts, the former in the bass-led groove that builds off the final chorus and rides out the last minute and a half or so, and the latter in a midsection build where Beach‘s drums hold the tension in such a way as to reassure that the Nebula-style wah blastoff will return before the finish, which, like atomic clockwork, it does.
But the prevailing vibe throughout is that Sunny V — whoops — is a ripper, and having “Rip the Sky” as a centerpiece feeds into that in a manner that feels like a purposeful turn from some of the mellower psychedelia Sun Voyager have offered in the past, either on the first album or 2015’s Lazy Daze EP (review here), splits with Greasy Hearts (discussed here) and The Mad Doctors (review here) in 2014 and 2016, respectively, and the 2013 demo Mecca (review here) that helped establish their penchant for v-i-b-e vibes and lysergic push alike.
Could be the times, could just be this batch of tunes, or it could be the band sat down and had a formal-dress meeting and were like, “we’re gonna play faster songs now and it’s gonna have more keys and be more freaked out and blah blah blah time to make new t-shirts,” I don’t know, and I suppose it doesn’t really matter, but it’s true nonetheless. And, as they handled some of the recording themselves amid the process of building their own studio — basic tracks were done live with Paul Ritchie at New Future in Belmar, NJ, with vocals, guitar overdubs, keys, etc., added at their place after; crucially, the band mixed themselves, and that’s not a negative — Sun Voyager sizzles with intent whether a given part of a given song is fast or slow, but at no point sounds overwrought, whether it’s the all-go sunshine guitar and organ heavy psych in the back half of “Rip the Sky” or the more low-end-minded, dripping-wet boogie of “To Hell We Ride,” the bikers-in-space spirit and it’s-about-freedom-baby guitar solo of which feel definitive.
That they’re moving toward self-recording is interesting in terms of speculating what they might do on an eventual third LP — not to mention the (potentially permanent) lineup change — but their doing so is already playing a significant role here. Whether it’s “Feeling Alright” reaching the top of Olympus Mons with its melodic apex in the second half or closer “The Vision” building off the earlier shoves in “Run for You” and “Some Strange” to set up a broader nod in its still-a-wash finish for the album, the chief accomplishment of Sun Voyager circa Sun Voyager is to be uptempo without sounding like they’re in a rush. The way “The Vision” seems to ooze and bounce reminds a bit of Slift and the radiated punk of Misfits‘ “Hybrid Moments” in its turning declension, but that goes back to the idea of momentum and the physicality of the music. Consider even the titles — “Run for You,” “Rip the Sky,” “To Hell We Ride” — that put the verbs right out there. Action words for action psych.
Like the rest of everybody’s everything, there’s no real telling what the future might hold for Sun Voyager, but if their self-titled demonstrates anything at all it’s that the band is capable of maintaining control of what they’re doing even when working at maximum flux. The synthy/maybe-theremin twists in “Some Strange” and the organ-born realization of “Feeling Alright” are by no means the only examples of the trio/sometimes-four-piece — Seth Applebaum of Ghost Funk Orchestra has sat in live on multiple occasions and contributes photography here, so is involved — using the cohesive underpinning of that live-tracked guitar, bass and drums as a springboard into more expansive fare, and the fact that they’re able to hit that balance in a way that sounds so natural whether a given part is fast or slow(er), raucous or subdued, is an analog for their larger creative growth. They may be holding onto the steering apparatus of a flying saucer careening through an ion storm, but they’re holding on. That feels an awful lot like burgeoning maturity.
Suits them, if these songs are anything to go by. They don’t stick around here long enough to really test attention spans, but neither is Sunny V — there I go again — a flash and gone. Rather, even after “The Vision” has landed like a NASA satellite crashing into an asteroid, the resonance of the guitar, vocal echo and even the overarching forward urgency remains. This is a credit to craft as well as performance, and will only continue to serve Sun Voyager well after this release as they step out once more into the grand unknown. In the meantime, they are a boon to East Coast US psychedelic heavy both for the rawness of their aural amplitude and the expanses they use that to foster, and this is their finest work to-date.
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 1st, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Congratulations to Sun Voyager, who are about to release one of 2022’s best records in the form of their self-titled label debut for Ripple Music. The awaited follow-up to 2018’s Seismic Vibes (review here) will be out on Oct. 7 and while I don’t see a preorder link yet, I’ll tell you flat out that I’ve gotten to know this record pretty well and if you’ve got a bell, it’s about to be rung. The track “Some Strange” — about drugs — is the first streaming audio to come from the LP and it arrives with the announcement of the Ripple signing and the album info and release date.
I’m gonna go ahead and put in my request to stream the entire thing — how’s Oct. 5 work for you? — and I’ll hopefully have more about it before then too, but it’s some of the best heavy psych I’ve heard on the Eastern Seaboard in a while. Like, maybe in the four years since their last one. So keep an eye out.
Fresh off the PR wire this morning:
New-York psych rockers SUN VOYAGER to issue new album this fall on Ripple Music ; stream first track “Some Strange” now!
New-York garage psych trio SUN VOYAGER announce the release of their self-titled sophomore album this October 7th on Ripple Music. Listen to the first single “Some Strange” now!
Ripple Music is proud to be working with New York-based heavy psych rockers SUN VOYAGER on releasing the follow-up to their revered 2018 debut ‘Seismic Vibes’. Fusing early metal influences from the comedown era with kraut jam-inspired stoner rock freakouts, you can expect plenty of groove and loads of fuzz. For fans of Kyuss desert grooves, expansive garage psych à la King Gizzard and Oh Sees, and Earthless wah-driven explorations.
About their new self-titled album, SUN VOYAGER says: “This album was one truly written as a band. We spent two years pretty much just getting together, seeing what would happen, and most of the music is pulled from wild 15-minute long voice memo jams where the three of us found the pocket and you should have been there. The lyrical themes range from impending doom to kicking ass to falling in love.” About the new single, they add: “Some Strange was the first song we wrote for the album. Proving the theory that all ya need is one big riff. This song takes you into the unrelenting chaos of the witching hour. Experiences one only encounters wandering the streets throughout the night in search of the next thrill. There’s always a new high to catch right around the corner, come on, let’s ride.”
SUN VOYAGER – New album “Sun Voyager” Out October 7th on Ripple Music
TRACKLIST: 1. God Is Dead 2. Run For You 3. Some Strange 4. Rip The Sky 5. To Hell We Ride 6. Feeling Alright 7. The Vision
The Hudson River Valley has inspired centuries’ worth of poets, painters and other artists, so it is of little surprise that the rolling, sleepy hillsides, lush, sun-reflecting waters and serenity of the New York region should spark an attempt to preserve some part of it in sound as well. Based in New Paltz, about an hour north of the (former) Tappan Zee Bridge, Michael Lutomski is best known as drummer in psych instrumentalists It’s Not Night: It’s Space, whose last album, 2016’s Our Birth is But a Sleep and a Forgetting (review here) came out through Small Stone and took a more cosmic pastoralia, but in and as the meditative psych unit Okkoto, Lutomski seems more purely fueled by the experience of being in the world, in nature, even looking out a window at trees while playing guitar, whatever it might be.
Climb the Antlers and Reach the Stars is the second Okkoto full-length — the project taking its name from a boar god character in Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke — behind 2019’s Fear the Veil Not the Void, and while that album brought forth exploratory drones and noises cast entirely at Lutomski‘s behest, setting the course for an experimentalist bent that very much continues on the second record, Climb the Antlers and Reach the Stars is an altogether more soothing, less isolated-feeling offering, more directly in communion with its surroundings and more coherent in its approach to how its songs are built.
Note the two titles. The anchor verbs for the 2019 album are “fear” and “[fear] not,” where the follow-up has “climb” and “reach,” resulting in an overarching aspirational feel that’s all more resonant in the psychedelic post-rock morning fog of “First Drops in the Cup of Dawn” (8:56) or the echoing shimmer of electric guitar on the subsequent “Wind at the Gated Grove” (7:41) which opens drone first in smooth, entrancing layers before the arrival of drums acts as so much of a grounding effect.
That is the case as an intended side A wraps with “Mother Moon and Father Sun” (5:31) before the final pairing of “Window Onto the Hidden Place and the Other Time” (10:13) and the closer “Where the Meadows Dream Beside the Sea” (11:46) cap the 44-minute runtime with an album’s depth unto themselves. And in comparison to the first Okkoto as well — which also used drums, but more sparsely and not on every track — Lutomski‘s drumming gives these pieces a sense of completion and allows the listener to be all the more subsumed by the peacefulness surrounding for the bit of motion coinciding.
They sound live but could just as easily be programmed, it doesn’t really matter, and the progressions are relatively simple in the grand scheme of what a band might feature — the beginning of “Where the Meadows Dream Beside the Sea” reminds distinctly of Om‘s Advaitic Songs, about which none should complain — but their purpose is clear and they serve it well in turning “Wind at the Gated Grove” into more of a realized song, and particularly with their relatively late arrival there, establishing a dynamic wherein Lutomski is able to evoke different emotions and experiences through their interplay with the guitar effects, synth, etc. surrounding.
And for all the foot-on-earth feel they add, Lutomski is still free to manipulate the birds singing on “First Drops in the Cup of Dawn” until they become the beat, and to push them back in the mix of “Window Onto the Hidden Place and the Other Time” until they feel like a distant rhythmic echo behind the central melody six-plus minutes in, a moment of manifestation for Okkoto as a whole and perhaps a telling example of where and toward what the project’s ongoing progression might lead. These songs are longer, generally, than those on Fear the Veil Not the Void, and seem to be the result of a conscious decision on Lutomski‘s part for what they should be.
That is, the drums, like the guitar, like the guest fiddle of Rick Birmingham (who also mastered) and the good-luck-finding-them vocals of Laura McLaughlin that are reportedly included in “Where the Meadows Dream Beside the Sea,” feel entirely purposeful, and they do a fair amount of work as one would expect and hope on an outing that at least by some crazy standard might be considered minimalist. I’d argue Climb the Antlers and Reach the Stars is not that, however.
To make the case, one hardly needs anything more than the centerpiece, “Mother Moon and Father Sun,” which is the shortest of the five inclusions and by the time it’s 40 seconds in is unfolding gracefully its melodic guitar foundation and synthesizer accompaniment, not so much aiming to be cinematic — there’s an awful lot of pretend-soundtracking going on these days — as letting the sounds be their own thing, letting the guitar find its path from night to day. If this is to be the moment on the record wherein the sunrise of “First Drops in the Cup of Dawn” comes to fruition, it’s a quiet morning and the manner in which the synth fades out after four minutes feels duly transitional, leaving the guitar and drums to go at their own pace.
In terms of overall impact, “Window Onto the Hidden Place and the Other Time” might be the most active of the songs, building to a marching wholeness around the aforementioned guitar melody before finishing with what sounds like nighttime animal noises, and its effect leading into “Where the Meadows Dream Beside the Sea” isn’t lost, the final track ending with a whistling sound that’s either more birds or a twisting guitar note echoed out or who knows what. One more thing passing by.
But it works, and the Climb the Antlers and Reach the Stars seems to feel out these spaces even as it creates them, resulting in a listening experience that’s genuinely hypnotic but satisfying to any and all levels of attention paid. You can get lost in it, to be sure, but if you follow along the trail Lutomski sets, you’ll come out of the woods just fine and arrive, perhaps, at the water’s edge.
Okkoto, Climb the Antlers & Reach the Stars (2022)
[It’s Not Night: It’s Space release Our Birth is but a Sleep and a Forgetting on June 24 via Small Stone. Click play above to stream an exclusive premiere from the album.]
Cumbersome in its title and awaited in its arrival, Our Birth is but a Sleep and a Forgetting is the second full-length and Small Stone Records label debut from New Paltz, New York, heavy psych instrumentalists It’s Not Night: It’s Space. The guitar-bass-drums trio issued their first full-length, Bowing Not Knowing to What (review here), in 2012, and were picked up by Small Stone the next year, and since then it seems to have been a process of letting the band’s slow-motion space rock congeal to a point where it’s able to be processed by human minds, which is apparently where we are now. Beaming in from cosmic depths with six tracks — an intro and five cuts between seven and nine minutes a pop — Our Birth is but a Sleep and a Forgetting offers sonic immersion and atmospheric scope in kind with a patient, hypnotic front-to-back flow that adds rich tonality to what guitarist Kevin Halcott, bassist Tommy Guerrero and drummer Michael Lutomski accomplished their first time out.
Parts may have been born of improvisations, but the finished product doesn’t feel like a collection of jams. Rather, a series of interconnected pieces correctly positioned to guide the listener through this aural expanse. Spiritualism, contemplation, philosophy, space itself — all of this seems to be in play for It’s Not Night: It’s Space, as the samples in three-minute opener “Nada Brahma” demonstrate and cuts like “Across the Luster of the Desert into the Polychrome Hills” and “Starry Wisdom” answer back. The material is dynamic, particularly so the build in “Pillars of the Void,” but the key is in the motion of the record as a whole, and It’s Not Night: It’s Space succeed in holding their course while showing varied sides of their approach.
They have some help in that regard from Rick Birmingham, who recorded and mixed and who adds fiddle to “The Beard of Macroprosopus” and closer “The Black Iron Prison and the Palm Tree Garden,” but though the expanse they conjure throughout feels wider than something a trio might be able to craft, mostly it’s Halcott, Guerrero and Lutomski here. Should probably go without saying that effects have a considerable role to play in Halcott‘s approach, but ultimately the album is as rhythmically hypnotic as it is otherworldly of vibe. “Nada Brahma” fades in on voices that sound like chanting mantras to ease the way into the expanded consciousness that follows. An acoustic guitar line, bass, percussion and swirl give an immediate impression like the kind of ritual Om might enact, but the samples and emergent lead electric guitar assure It’s Not Night: It’s Space maintain their own direction from the outset. They’ll continue to do so as “The Beard of Macroprosopus” takes hold with a kosmiche push that grows more and more resonant before it pays off in echoing, winding guitar the tension its early moments have built.
Much to their credit, It’s Not Night: It’s Space avoid the trap of loud/quiet trades for the most part that seem to be so core in a lot of heavy psychedelia, and instead offer linear fluidity with movement of tempo and mood, and a depth of mix through layers of rhythm and lead guitar, effects and spacious drumming. Ending with more sampled chanting, “The Beard of Macroprosopus” echoes into the start of “Across the Luster of the Desert into Polychrome Hills,” for which it doesn’t seem like an accident that “desert” made it into the title. A patient fuzz unfolds in the bass beneath manipulated drone and a subtle build of guitar and drums. The central line that arrives past two minutes in seems born of a surf tradition — as is desert rock — and if the “Polychrome Hills” are being represented in Halcott‘s lead in the second half and the deeply satisfying roll that follows, I’d say they’re being done justice.
A cold end brings the guitar intro to “Starry Wisdom” — I’ll assume that’s where the A/B vinyl split is as well, but it’s the digital version I’m reviewing — which spends its first couple minutes in a post-rock stoner nod before opening to more driving territory, locked in in a fashion that a low of Our Birth is but a Sleep and a Forgetting has shown little interest in being, but still atmospheric on the whole. A big slowdown and blissout awaits in the second half, but the swing never departs entirely as Lutomski plays between crash and snare to ensure the rhythm holds together until the guitar is left to fade on its own into the start of the penultimate “Pillars in the Void,” the subdued opening of which is perhaps all the more effective for how little It’s Not Night: It’s Space have toyed with minimalism throughout.
True there’s still plenty going on as the track gets underway, but the central guitar figure and drum and basslines are more sparse than, for example, “Starry Wisdom” preceding, and the effect is to enact a linear payoff, then drop back to quiet before unfurling the highlight progression of the album as it moves toward and past the six-minute mark. No less immersive than anything before it, “Pillars in the Void”‘s concluding movement showcases a feel for songwriting and linguistic expression (still without lyrics or samples, mind you) that stands it out from its surroundings. One might think that would leave “Between the Black Iron Prison and the Palm Tree Garden” as an afterthought, but that winds up not at all the case, as It’s Not Night: It’s Space close out with a darker mood and straightforward but still trance-inducing groove, bass and echoing guitar giving an impression like Yawning Man by night early before moving into the Spaghetti West in the midsection and reintroducing Birmingham‘s fiddle as they gracefully build their way into the song and the record’s final push, ending noisy and sudden.
As the material comprises it feels worked over, hammered out, and shaped into what the band wants it to be, it makes sense that Our Birth is but a Sleep and a Forgetting might show up four years after It’s Not Night: It’s Space‘s debut, but as a front-to-back listen will attest, time comes to matter little once you dig into that wash and find yourself consumed by it. Fuller in its sound and more clearheaded in its purpose, the album shows definitive growth on the part of Halcott, Guerrero and Lutomski, but manages to do so without sacrificing the exploratory feel that helps make it so engaging and meditative. Similar to the chanting that starts off, the record itself seems to be a mantra. Perhaps It’s Not Night: It’s Space have found wisdom in the stars.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 12th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
It’s been a minute or two waiting on news of It’s Not Night: It’s Space‘s debut on Small Stone. Given the lengthy title Our Birth is but a Sleep and a Forgetting, the instrumental New York State trio’s second album is due June 24 and will feature six tracks, the first of which, “Nada Brahma,” is available now for streaming. At four minutes, it’s not exactly insubstantial, but it’s still more of an intro to the record than anything else, with samples and a psychedelic swirl that continues to be a defining thread as the rest of the sprawl plays out across tracks hovering on either side of eight minutes apiece of driving, heavy and thoroughly-spaced rock and roll.
I didn’t write the bio below, but I definitely gave it an edit. Here it is off the PR wire, followed by that track:
IT’S NOT NIGHT: IT’S SPACE: Psychedelic Drone Merchants To Release Our Birth Is But A Sleep And A Forgetting June 24th Via Small Stone Recordings
Guitarist Kevin Halcott and drummer Michael Lutomski founded IT’S NOT NIGHT: IT’S SPACE early in 2010. Crammed in a small, smoky bedroom, they tapped in and jammed, compelled by chemistry to push forward. By that Fall, Tommy Guerrero had joined on bass and the band dropped two self-releases by 2012. The first EP arrived in October 2011. East Of The Sun & West Of The Moon featured three epic instrumental pieces that set the tone for what to expect from INN:IS. Positive response came in virtual and physical realities, and the band set about honing their craft, averaging about fifty-to-sixty shows a year.
Momentum carried them straight into their first LP, 2012’s Bowing Not Knowing To What, self-released with the help of successful crowdfunding raising $5,000 to press CDs and vinyl. It was this album that caught the attention of Small Stone Records. A series of roadblocks and personal setbacks fowlloing that release album set the tone for their second album, the soon-to-be issued Our Birth Is But A Sleep And A Forgetting, set for official unveiling worldwide on June 24th, 2016.
In moldy warehouses, grimy basements, and the dusty backrooms of pizza shops, the psychedelic drone trio channeled new material and worked tirelessly to craft the songs that would become a definitive offering. It became a full-time task. Our Birth Is But A Sleep And A Forgetting rings both familiar and fresh. Longtime fans should have no trouble getting down with the heavy grooves and climaxes of these sonic journeys, but the band has pushed into dreamier territories as well. The long wait to share this very personal and powerful album is finally over, and IT’S NOT NIGHT: IT’S SPACE is ready to get back on the wave and ride it forward.
IT’S NOT NIGHT: IT’S SPACE’s Our Birth Is But A Sleep And A Forgetting was recorded, produced and mixed by Rick Birmingham at Castle Alamut and The Tin Roof Studios and mastered by Chris Goosman (Acid King, La Chinga, solace, Lo Pan, Freedom Hawk etc. ) with artwork by Travis Lawrence. The record will be released worldwide on CD, digitally and limited edition, 180-gram vinyl.
Our Birth Is But A Sleep And A Forgetting Track Listing: 1. Nada Brahma 2. The Beard Of Macroprosopus 3. Across The Luster Of The Desert Into The Polychrome Hills 4. Starry Wisdom 5. Pillars In The Void 6. The Black Iron Prison And The Palm Tree Garden
It’s Not Night: It’s Space are: Kevin Halcott: guitar Michael Lutomski: drums Tommy Guerrero: bass
(((SPRING SHOWS))) 5.19 – Manchester, NH Fuzz Hut – w/ Black Norse & Big Mess 5.20 – Lowell, MA UnchARTed Gallery – w/ Black Norse, Big Mess, & Inspector 34 5.21 – Dover, NH The Dover Brickhouse – w/ Black Norse, Big Mess, & Green Bastard 5.28 – New Paltz, NY LUDWIG DAY CELEBRATION 6.16 – Kingston, NY The Anchor – w/ Moon Tooth & ROZAMOV 6.17 – Worldwide Live on Music With Space 6.18 – Newburgh, NY 2016 Newburgh Illuminated Festival 6.24 New Paltz, NY Snug Harbor Bar and Grill – RECORD RELEASE EXTRAVAGANZA
Posted in Duuude, Tapes! on April 14th, 2015 by JJ Koczan
In the time since releasing their 2013 demo/EP, Mecca (review here), Orange County, New York, heavy psych rockers Sun Voyager have been more or less engaged in the business of growing their band. They’ve played local shows, done some time on the road, found a label to help push their stuff in the form of King Pizza Records, appeared on a compilation or two, and done a split release, with Greasy Hearts. Along the way, they’ve also released singles in drips and drabs, one song at a time every so often, capturing different moods and vibes still within the warm sphere of what they did so well on Mecca, but showing progress anyhow in fuzzy cuts like “Gypsy Hill” and “God is Dead.” Their new cassette, called Lazy Daze after its closing track and released by King Pizza in limited numbers (250 copies, white tape, pro case and j-card), brings together these singles and turns them into Sun Voyager‘s most established release to-date. It’s five songs from the earthy heavygaze rockers and only about 20 minutes between the two sides, but big on vibe and a right-on showing of increased complexity in their craft.
Definitely an EP for its runtime, Lazy Daze nonetheless houses an album-style flow, and while its title and some of Sun Voyager‘s shoegaze aesthetic hint toward an element of ’90s apathy — of “fuckit” made flesh — the weight of their tones and swing counteract with movement that’s exciting even in the overarching languid atmosphere of the tracks themselves. “God is Dead” is a landmark for the band. A familiar refrain, perhaps, but the four-piece of guitarist/vocalist Carlos Francisco, guitarist Steve Friedman, bassist Stefan Mersch and drummer Kyle Beach make it their own, turning “My god is dead but your god’s dead too” into a killer hook for the upbeat first half of the song and an echoing space-out over the fluid, slower jamming of the second. The song lurches to a drawling finish like a universe stretching itself into oblivion, and “Black Angel” picks up quickly with a garage-style rush that Francisco tops with reverb-soaked melody and a molten vibe that is quickly becoming a trademark of their approach. Unlike the opener, “Black Angel” holds its space-rocking motor for its entirety, so it seems only fair that “Gypsy Hill” would slow things down, and it does, but more than that, it opens wide a horizon soundscape, sunny and rural as were the best moments of Mecca — its central progression reminds a bit of “Space Queen” from that release; not a complaint — but more coherent in the songwriting and assured in its course. They weave into and out of jammy grooves, but its the nodding chorus that makes “Gypsy Hill” the highlight that it is as it rounds out side one.
Launching side two, “Be Here Now” would seem to signal a change in vibe, but it’s really just a progression from where “Gypsy Hill” was headed, that song a transitional centerpiece between the two sides of the EP. A sleepy flow and peaceful atmosphere can make it easy to look past how heavy “Be Here Now” actually is when it picks up, but Sun Voyager shift so easily between louder and quieter parts that by the time the four minutes are up, you’re just absolutely lost in it. All the better leading into “Lazy Daze” itself, which earns the title-track spot with its more accomplished melody and memorable roll. Backing “ooh” vocals behind Francisco add flourish to the verse and choruses, and what works best about Lazy Daze overall is once more underlined, and that’s that even when Sun Voyager are using straightforward structures — all of these songs are shorter and have fewer actual jams than the tracks on Mecca — they’re able to maintain hypnotic listener engagement even as they weave through different songwriting ideas. I won’t at all say I hope they never kick out a full-on jam again, if only because I don’t think they’re at a point where any element of their approach should be written off entirely, but the balance they strike on Lazy Daze of approach-tightness and sonic-looseness makes the 20 minutes of the EP’s span seem much, much wider, and really makes me look forward to hearing what kinds of shifts Sun Voyager might be able to pull off over the course of a debut full-length. I think they could give it a shot at this point, and I hope they find room to branch out a bit in terms of arrangements, maybe put an organ in there somewhere for one or two songs, some acoustics or additional percussion. Because if Lazy Daze proves anything, it’s that Sun Voyager have their sound as it is down pat and are ready to move forward from here.
Posted in Bootleg Theater on September 4th, 2014 by JJ Koczan
New Paltz final-frontiersmen It’s Not Night: It’s Space released their debut and most recent full-length, Bowing Not Knowing to What (review here), back in 2012. They were announced as having signed to Small Stone at some point last year and their new album is reportedly in progress, but no solid release date has been given yet. One imagines the instrumental trio will get there sooner or later, and in the meantime, Bowing Not Knowing to Whatstill has plenty of cosmic delights to offer those who’d take it on, as the new video for “The Gathering” demonstrates.
The clip, which appropriately enough features a slug laced in with spaced-out B-roll, was put together by John Lutomski, brother of It’s Not Night: It’s Space drummer Michael Lutomski, and like the song itself, it’s a peaceful but increasingly foreboding build, cinematic in the sense of having grandeur, but ultimately weirder than you’d find in most movies. “The Gathering” does well in blending natural elements — flute, percussion — and a steady effects wash as it builds up, which makes sense considering it’s the leadoff on Bowing Not Knowing to Whatand the introduction to the rest of the album, but the languid ritualism is what carries through most of all, and in that it’s a fitting representation for what It’s Not Night: It’s Space have to offer.
That record, as well as the band’s 2011 debut EP, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, is available as a name-your-price download through Bandcamp, so there’s plenty of opportunity to get acquainted if you’ve yet to do so. It’s Not Night: It’s Space is Lutomski, bassist Tommy Guerrero and guitarist Kevin Halcott. and their new LP was recently performed in full at the New Paltz Rocks Fest over Labor Day weekend. More to come on the release, I’m sure.
Until then, enjoy “The Gathering” on the player below:
It’s Not Night: It’s Space, “The Gathering” official video
