New Sun Araw

For new sounds, old sounds and favourite sound discussion...

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johnnyboy
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New Sun Araw

Post by johnnyboy »

Bizarre as ever but as always strangely beautiful and a portal to other zones where nothing is quite right but right it is. Or something. I like it. Nice slide guitar and vocals. Better than the Sun Araw Trio Gazebo Effect album.
http://marcelsmusicjournal.com/post/157 ... dle-of-the
angelsighs
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Re: New Sun Araw

Post by angelsighs »

yeah that's a pretty weird song. his more recent stuff seems really minimal in a strange way. going to have to give it a few listens I think.

on the topic of Sun Araw, I ordered a CD copy of Heavy Deeds the other day. it seems a pretty rare one but luckily I managed to get it at a reasonable price. I love that whole early period- the sleeves, the style, the music- like a mixture of psych, dub reggae, minimalism, world music, and like all the best artists he really does create his own world you can get drawn into.

but the newer stuff. yeah gonna have to give it more time I think!
johnnyboy
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Re: New Sun Araw

Post by johnnyboy »

I do love the whole Heavy Deeds/ On Patrol/ Ancient Romans era, great whacked out deep in the jungle grooves going on. Love the sleeves too, like yourself, great imagery going on. Took a little while for his Belomancie album to click with me but once it did I totally loved it and it's had heavy rotation at home since it came out. Some good words about it all in another thread here http://spiritualized.band/viewtopic.php ... aw#p131012 where Hofstadter speaks very well about it.

Sun Araw has stripped it all back over the years and it's a fun ride. This new one has an element of the old style about it too I think, with the guitar slide sound mainly, but with the crazy rhythm sounds of new on top. Dive in deep and it's a groovy one.
angelsighs
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Re: New Sun Araw

Post by angelsighs »

yeah that early period is great music- On Patrol, Heavy Deeds, Off Duty. dubby and dank.

with the recent stuff he seems to have gone much more minimal and also seems to have mislaid the reverb button.

There's still a fair amount of stuff I haven't investigated including various collaborations (Eternal Tapestry, The Congos)
TheWarmth
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Re: New Sun Araw

Post by TheWarmth »

I could never get into Ancient Romans and in my mind I don't include it with the On Patrol / Heavy Deeds era. I definitely skipped a few albums, but maybe I'll check out the new one. Anyone who gets a copy, please post a more in depth review.
Aquarian-Time
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Re: New Sun Araw

Post by Aquarian-Time »

After the last 3 releases I sold the lot, as it did nigh on nothing for me. I do recall Hoftstadter getting quite frustrated by a fair of us being a little negative about the last album. And with that he was gone....
Early stuff I quite liked, but didn't love, so seemed a decent shout to shed the lot (luckily haven't regretted yet !!)
johnnyboy
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Re: New Sun Araw

Post by johnnyboy »

Has Hof gone for good? That's a shame. I loved his words about the Belomancie album, really nicely put and I totally got where he was at.

Different strokes for different folks with any music though. I can see why people wouldn't get or like Sun Araw. His last one was quite 'tricky' but once into it there was a whole universe of joy to be had. I do find the one after that, Gazebo Effect, to be very hard going and I haven't listened to it much but there are moments of wonder on there.

Did you ditch vinyl copies? I've been after On Patrol on vinyl for a while now. Got them all on cd so far.
Aquarian-Time
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Re: New Sun Araw

Post by Aquarian-Time »

Alas yes all vinyl. I have to get harsh with my collection now and again. Every so often I get rid of a good one and regret it but I kind of think I know where I am with my listening these days so usually make the right call.
johnnyboy
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Re: New Sun Araw

Post by johnnyboy »

Brave move but you sound like you know what you're doing. I offloaded a lot of vinyl in my late teens/early 20's, a lot of bad stuff but way too many nuggets that I would love to still have now. The fickleness of youth, selling to fund recreationals, thinking music tastes had changed. Now I'm 44 and wish I could slap that younger self.
Hofstadter
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Re: New Sun Araw

Post by Hofstadter »

Wassup!

I still exist!

I miss this board... things just got kinda crazy with school and uh life and stuff and I don't know... stopped posting for a bit and then stopped checking and then... it's been years all of a sudden!!!! hope everybody's been well - this place certainly helped me get through some tough times (whether with sonic or other forms of support)!

anyways I was just going through a little kick of Hookworms and felt inspired to come check the board after not having done so in several years... funny then to see this thread!

Real quickly re: gazebo effect since I just saw you asked about it in the other thread JB - the third player on it is Mitchell Brown, aka Nanny Canteloupe, Prof. Cantelopue, and other alter egos (check out his shows on dublab.com)... an element of SA which has always made it special (especially in the live context) is how much it changes based on the specific constellation of people involved, and I think Gazebo Effect is one of the best demonstrations of that - it really is Sun Araw poured through Mitchell Brown's brain. To me the record answers the question: "what does sun araw sound like to mitchell brown?" Maybe I will take some time to try to collect thoughts on it later...

Excited for the new one! The three things I think to note/that stick out from that first track
1: Vocals - Cam has seemingly gotten more and more comfortable over the past few years bringing the vocals out of the sludge and into the clear water....
2: Jon Leland has been playing percussion for the live band for a while now (mixture of acoustic percussion elements and a digital kit sending data to Ableton which cam can then work with using his Push controller) - his influence is super apparent in this new track as well, and
3: SK Kakraba - he is a Master Gyil (Ghanaian xylophone) player, and spent a lot of time at CalArts/in LA the past few years; Sun Ark put out a record of his a year or two ago - and I think the sort of tempo modulation and also tonal space Cam is occupying in this new track can definitely be traced back to SKK - also just in terms of timbre, that sort of steel drum/pitched percussive sound that has shown up so much in SA stuff since like, the Inner Treaty definitely resonates with the the sound of the gyil.

also, of course, the world-building of each record is something that I have adored about them - the art, the text, the press releases, etc all establish their own little mythos... have a feeling he is getting really elaborate with the heracles-herding-cattle thing on this one, which is great in my opinion! Part of what makes his records so fun I think is feeling like you are escaping into his bizarro universes.

One of the things that's so great about SA is that no two records are alike, and I'm sure that this new one will continue the trend -

PS here's a photo of me playing with the SA band in Copenhagen! that's me in the center with my back to the audience. It was this crazy octet big band thing that I did the performance interface programming for (it was kind of this weird tribute to the Yamaha DX7 rack-unit, the TX802 - we were using 1x Casio MIDI guitar, 3x Electronic Wind Instruments, 1x Doepfer Bass Synth Touch Ribbon, 1x Ableton Push, 1x Acoustic/Digital Percussion, 1x Omnichord, all driving and cross-modulating different voices on the TX-802 and also in Ableton, pretty much just an insane improvisation system - I was the 9th person managing that system which I programmed).
johnnyboy
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Re: New Sun Araw

Post by johnnyboy »

Hey, welcome back my Sun Araw compadre! Always a pleasure to read your posts on his music and mini-universe. Would love to hear more on the Gazebo Effect album. The process behind it was an interesting one, his sound being fed live through tape and manipulated......or something or other. Bizarrely great at times on that album but has moments where if you're not in the zone then it feels like your head is under attack.

Looks like the new album is shipping now. I thought it was May for some reason but here it is: http://www.sunaraw.com/main.html A Jackfruit Rodeo. Covered in eyes! Swaddled in flame! A metaphysical comedy of self about the roping and directing of cattle.

That's really cool you've played with him, must've been quite a buzz.
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