Hold/Still
Reviewed by: Max Miller
Suuns hail from Montreal and have released all their albums on Secretly Canadian (which, ironically, is based out of Indiana). Contrary to — or perhaps in perfect alignment with — the venerable label’s tongue-in-cheek name, there is nothing at all covert about the four-piece’s Canadianness. Their unique blend of electronic music and psychedelic rock makes for exactly the kind of albums you’d expect to be longlisted for Canada’s highest musical honor, the Polaris Music Prize, as was the case with 2013’s Images du futur. Now, following a collaborative record with Jerusalem in My Heart last year, Suuns have emerged with Hold/Still, their third full-length.
Suuns’ brand of neo-psychedelia borrows, in a very general sense, from the minimalist repetition of Krautrock groups like Can and NEU!. At the same time, tinges of stoner rock’s more avant-garde fringes (i.e. Om, Earth, Boris) can be heard in some of the fuzzed-out guitar lines. Overall, however, a heavy industrial vibe permeates the music on Hold/Still, such as the metal-on-metal plod of opener “Fall” or the glitchy synth heartbeat of “Resistance.”
Too often, the electronic elements feel incongruous with the rest of the music, such as on “Brainwash,” where a distorted bass throb eventually overpowers the music until it is all that remains for a moment. Of course, when the vocals return, they repeatedly chant “brainwash,” so perhaps the obtrusive noise is meant to mirror the lyrical concept. Still, it hardly justifies the music sounding downright wonky.
Equally grating is vocalist Ben Shemie’s detached monotone. He talk-sings with the flat swagger of a Julian Casablancas or an Alan Vega, but it often feels at odds with the music. Take, for example, “Instrument,” where Shemie repeatedly intones the song title, distracting from one of the record’s more enticing grooves. What’s more, it gives Hold/Still an unwelcome retro leaning, especially via the Suicide connection, which makes one question whether a track like, say, “UN-NO” wouldn’t make a more compelling instrumental.
Really, though, what ultimately tanks Hold/Still is that Suuns’ compositions take off and then don’t progress anywhere meaningful. “Careful” spends seven minutes layering noise on top of repetitive instrumentals without ever crescendoing in a satisfactory manner. Sure, a trance-like quality is part and parcel to psychedelia, but it still must be shaped with a great deal of nuance. Even stoners get bored, eventually.
Rating: Semi-Obnoxious
