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 Post subject: Sungrazer - Mirador
PostPosted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 6:32 pm 

Joined: Sat Dec 04, 2010 8:04 pm
Posts: 64
Location: Numazu-Shi, Japan
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Bands with the word sun in their name always intrigue me. As an autonomous thing, that to me is also alive, we are so dependent and at the mercy of all our lives. It has affected all corners of our social spectrum, recognised ritualistically, religiously, symbolically, economically, it has born entire cultures, and razed many others. It is pure luck that we survive its heat at our safe distance, whilst staying close enough to not freeze. And so, when a band incorporates the word sun in their band name, I feel they better be bloody good. This moves nicely on to the band and record at hand, Sungrazer, who do not take the sun lightly (excuse the pun), they, and their 2011 release ‘Mirador’, are fucking fantastic.

It is always a rare treat when you get to follow a great band from their first release. In my ‘dickhead-elitist’ days I always wanted to know a great band from the beginning so I could say ‘Yeah, I knew (insert super kvlt band name) back when…’, and indeed I have mellowed out somewhat, possibly so far that I may be falling out in love with metal, but maybe more on that at a different time, but I still harbour this fascination with knowing a great band from the beginning, and I have an inkling that Sungrazer could be it (although with fewer kvlt points).

Their self-titled EP, also their debut recording, was a more straight forward stoner rock feast with great play of dynamics and pure riff rocking, that EP has stuck with me for months afterwards. On that EP Sungrazer presented their components, a kind of ‘this is what we’re made of’ moments, if I had to produce an ingredients list it would probably have Colour Haze, Rotor and Truckfighters somewhere on it. Sungrazer were probably more the latter two on the EP but on ‘Mirador’ they’ve certainly grown in sound, become a bit more confident with what they’re doing, brought in new cogs to the machine, each more psychedelic and spacey and progressive than the last, and now you certainly hear the Colour Haze in the mix especially on the mellow sung vocals, which I adore, but you can also now hear a lot of Sungrazer’s own personality in it.

Between the two records there has been some welcome expansive growth, but this is not only in ingredients and elements, ‘Mirador’ shows off more of a finesse in song-writing, they still keep it nicely loose, otherwise the spacey environment may feel a little too cardboardy, yet they aren’t verging on space cadet spaciness like contemporaries Blaak Heat Shujaa are. What’s created is an enveloping space-psych atmosphere which guides you amoungst the fuzzed constellations, and what fuzzed constellations they are! All full of riffy goodness. It isn’t all about space, but it does certainly justify the fantastic cover art which had me rotating it for about half an hour under a certain green haze which I won’t divulge, Sungrazer have upped the prog ante too. It are these qualities which set Sungrazer apart from the more straightforward stoner rock and showing that they do have an individual, and unique, personality in their music.

Regarding objectives, after floating around in this abstract space for the last four paragraphs, the record is a great length, clocking in under 50 minutes, and doesn’t end up being too jammy, which was my biggest problem with The Machine’s ‘Drie’ which was an excellent record, but waaaay too long for me, and so Sungrazer hit the spot well. Furthermore, I believe the rhythm section deserve a remarkable pat on the back for their superb performance on record, holding everything together, it seems Sungrazer’s bravest and most experimental music has been no problem for the drummer who kept everything simple and easy yet still interesting. Great sound too. The rhythm section actually produce one of my highlights of the record on the title track, where they formed the backbone of the track with a very catchy beat which had me embarrassingly trying to replicate on my desk sidetop to no great effect. It should also not be forgotten that Sungrazer still bring the most excellent fuzzy grooves too, brought along for this full length ride from their fantastic extended play.

If I was in a small band I would be worried about never being listened to, in the current climate there are hundreds of releases dropping every week, but if I was in Sungrazer I wouldn’t worry. Not one bit. They have the tunes and they have the quality which I believe is the start of something great, they are growing as writers, as ‘Mirador’ shows, and they bring the heavy, and they bring it well. ‘Mirador’ is a fantastic debut full length record, and it’s the start of something special.

[First posted here: http://thenumberoftheblog.com/2011/08/2 ... r-mirador/]

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 Post subject: Re: Sungrazer - Mirador
PostPosted: Sat Sep 03, 2011 10:38 am 
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Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2010 11:04 am
Posts: 3301
Location: Albuquerque
Quite possibly my Album of the Year.


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