The shape of Suuns’ music is intimated by their name: as if modeled after atomic solar waves, their songs sound like beams of pointed sonic rays. It makes sense, then, that the video for “2020,” directed by Sabina Ratte, should illustrate radiating bands of stark white on black. This isn’t to say that their music is monochromatic or flat. Far from it, in fact. Suuns simply seem to have such confidence in their textures and talents that each soundwave is given piercing aural clarity, its own channel and privileged right to ring out, to an almost burning extreme. A good burn. A real suunny day type of burn.
“2020” is a quintessential sort of scorcher. The track is spare but never scrawny. Its rays are direct and unhidden. The bass synth throbs throughout, and the vocals trade verses with the stuttering, but confident, descending guitarwork. Each instrument’s voice is piercing in its own right, penetrating, and yet no beat is overrun by a competition of sounds. It all adds up to a texture that isn’t exactly analgesic, but comforting nonetheless, if you can submit to it. Suuns seem to appeal to a sense of transcendence that arises from numbness through overexposure, rather than the more traditional comfort via softness and bliss. For those of us who like a deep tissue massage, or extra hot water, or nails down the back, this is the sort of thing that can do the trick.
Suuns sophomore album Images du Futur is scheduled for release on March 5 from Secretly Canadian.
• Suuns: http://suunsband.tumblr.com
• Secretely Canadian: http://www.secretlycanadian.com
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