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 Post subject: Sgt. Sunshine - III
PostPosted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 12:51 am 

Joined: Wed Dec 08, 2010 7:59 pm
Posts: 318
Sgt. Sunshine
"III"
Elektrohasch Schallplatten
Release Date: February 2013

First off, I will admit to being an unabashed fan. In hindsight I can’t believe it’s been 12 years since I first heard the original set of demos by Sgt. Sunshine (maybe as there have been only 3 albums in that time). An old Stonerrock.com cohort directed my attention to the band knowing of my mutual love for the archetypal ‘desert’ warm fuzz tones. Absolutely blew me away. In total spite of their ‘demo’ stage, there was a real magic happening, a lightning-in-a-bottle captured. In 2003 the Abstract Sounds label had the good sense to release their first record. The righteousness of the so-deep-you’d-trip-over-them grooves, changes from groove to groove, the subtle but unique harmonies, vocals more like a compliment than a showcase, mixed further back generally, the tasteful walking bass lines, and warmth in the tones that lasted forever. Sure the comparison to Kyuss was expected, but somehow in that, Sgt. Sunshine had made something their own. For me, “tasteful” was an operative word on that self-titled album. Tasteful percussion, bass, guitars, they really had it all. Each song was just one homerun after another. I never heard from, or of, anyone who didn’t like that record.

Which is why expectation was so, perhaps unreasonably, high for their second album, 2007’s Black Hole. I won’t bore with the biography here (though for me would be a fun endeavor), but needless to say many fans responded ‘unfavorably’ to Black Hole. Cuban ex-pat Eduardo Fernandez R. is the primary songwriter for the band, and obviously was exploring a different animal, playing with different musicians, for his second outing. As I understand, the project came extremely close to being called Black Hole. Such was the contrast between Self-Titled and Black Hole. So looking at the record as a separate entity, through this lens, avoiding comparison, is advocated. Because those who dismiss Black Hole outright do themselves a disservice. Have a few more good listens… At times Kraut-Rock, others a bit avant-garde, there is still magic from that weird and wonderful mind of Eduardo. ‘Music Sweet Master’ launches into a sustained groove later in the song. The whole middle part of the album including ‘Overload’, ‘Sun Tree’, ‘Monte Azul’, ‘Go Out Fishing’, and ‘Mar Borrascosa’ is really good. Delicate harmony, hypnotic melancholy, classic-cut grooves are all to be found in those songs. ‘Mar Borrascosa’ is pure genius, worth the album alone if I had to boil it down. Eduardo’s amazing playing and ear for subtlety and ‘groove’ (sorry for the repetition, hard to avoid the word with this band) shine here…

The strange dearth of anything online about this band only threw fuel on the fire. No official website (a minor one, no longer up), no fan coverage, seemingly modest playing out live, no real touring in Europe, and sadly ZERO concert captures on audio or video (I tend to love that sort of thing, maybe more than most, so that did bum me out). Even the recently-up Facebook page is fairly sparse, minimal in content and information. It is a sidebar to the review, but this gave the impression that self-promotion, getting the word out, publicizing the music, was never terribly important to the band. And largely why not nearly enough people know who Sgt. Sunshine is, and I really hope for that to change. But it’s aided by the fact you can’t find that first album anymore. Their label went under and Elektrohasch’s vinyl re-release sold-out ages ago.

Five long years after Black Hole, we are at last, finally, thank you, treated to the new album III. It bears stressing that the charisma and power of III is, in good part, because the band line-up is once again the same as the first album. Swedes Christian Lundberg on drums, Par Hallgren on bass. "Kricke" (as he's called) and Par are the ideal rhythm section, alternately locked-in, then expanding and unrestrained. One of the tunes, ‘In-Thru-Mental’, actually dates back to the second round of demos leading up to the self-titled album. Thus it has original drummer Martin Johan Zaar on the kit. Bassist from Black Hole Michael Mino makes a guest appearance on one song, ‘When I Was A Dog’. ‘Beneath The Song’ made a brief appearance in demo form online in 2007, here it has fully blossomed. But if you loved the tones from the first record, they are molasses-thick on III. Back in spades are the hard grooves (to borrow the perfect adjective I read recently), “that junky sound” they’re so good at, the 60’s psychedelia, and a comparison to Colour Haze’s aesthetics, deliciousness, and crunchy taste is not far from the mark. Apparently the band makes their own fuzz pedals even... It’s immediate, and it’s a grower. Do yourself the favor. Very strongly recommended…


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 Post subject: Re: Sgt. Sunshine - III
PostPosted: Sat Apr 13, 2013 8:23 am 
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Joined: Sat Dec 04, 2010 7:24 pm
Posts: 740
Sure is - this is great and this band has such an appealing sound.

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 Post subject: Re: Sgt. Sunshine - III
PostPosted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 5:42 pm 

Joined: Wed Dec 08, 2010 7:59 pm
Posts: 318
*h.p. taskmaster wrote such a great review of this I thought I'd put it here:

It’s been a decade since Swedish rockers Sgt. Sunshine released their self-titled debut, an album that 10 years later still rings in the ears of those who were fortunate enough to hear it. In 2007, the follow-up, Black Hole, came out on Elektrohasch, and with a crunchier sound didn’t have quite the same spark as its predecessor, despite also being well received at the time. The band’s third album, aptly titled III (also released by Elektrohasch), immediate carves out a potent blend of desert groove and heavy psych jamming, the Malmö three-piece tapping into an earlier-Queens of the Stone Age via Colour Haze sound as natural as it is fuzzy, the guitars of Eduardo Fernandez leading the way for the rhythm section of bassist Pär Hallgren and drummer Christian “Kricke” Lundberg to flesh out and fill out the sound as cuts like “When I Was a Dog” nestles into funky vibing and the later “Holy Mother” digs deep into a warm, open jamming midsection. Fernandez and Hallgren share vocal duties, but it’s the songs themselves that are at the forefront of Sgt. Sunshine’s approach, with memorable hooks spread throughout and a fluid, unpretentious sensibility that leads one track into the next without any sense of progressive posturing or showiness. Opener “Zoetrope” starts with a drum beat from Lundberg strongly reminiscent of “You Think I ain’t Worth a Dollar but I Feel Like a Millionaire” from QOTSA’s Songs for the Deaf, but the “ooh”ing chorus soon unveils a more distinctly European take on the desert ideal, reminding of some of what Austrian rockers Been Obscene have been able to bring to the table melody-wise, without being fully adherent to their take either. It’s a solid opener and for Sgt. Sunshine’s first album in six years, they make their intent clear in the thick, warm tones of Fernandez’s guitar and Hallgren’s bass and the on-a-dime changes that play out smoothly across the 3:39, setting a tone for what’s to come throughout the album that follows in a natural feel and engaging sense of craft, “Zoetrope” returning to its verse/chorus interplay after a midsection jam.

From there, III embarks on a variety of riffy progressions but stays consistent in terms of atmosphere and desert rockery. Lundberg’s snare punctuates each cycle on “Caress the Tense Blue” as the guitar and bass work in tandem to threaten to swallow the vocals whole – they don’t, but Fernandez takes an effective transitional solo between verses to echo the melody – and though it’s the longest song on the album at 6:59, its structure prevents it from becoming overly repetitive. A split almost exactly in the middle introduces the fuzz line that will serve as the central figure for the second half, vocals soon topping double-time hi-hat drums that open to a slower section of psychedelic moodiness, a sluggish groove that carries the song to its finish and is soon counteracted by “Golden Dawn”’s immediate, no-frills rush. The effect putting the relatively straightforward “Zoetrope” and “Caress the Tense Blue” next to each other has is one of giving the listener a sense of not knowing what to expect – throwing the audience off without losing their attention – so that as “Golden Dawn” returns to a more basic verse and chorus-based mindset with an instrumental break similar to that of “Zoetrope,” the feeling isn’t that Sgt. Sunshine are repeating themselves, but rather that they’ve shown they can go wherever they like and where they’d like to go for the moment is there. It doesn’t last, of course, as the mostly-instrumental “Marrow Soup” lands with a dense thud of jam-based heavy psych riffing. The parts have been worked out – it doesn’t sound like the trio are making it up on the spot, that is – but there’s a sense of spontaneity about “Marrow Soup” anyway, even as Fernandez, Hallgren and Lundberg bring the build up, put it down again, bring it up again and ride the part to its end, giving way to “When I Was a Dog” and its funk-directed course. So far, III has started with a shorter track and then answered with a longer one, but that doesn’t continue through the second half of the tracklist, as the lasting hook of “When I Was a Dog” leads to a stretch of longer material that fills most of side B save for the epilogue closer, “Levin.”

The album seems to hit its most distinctly Colour Haze-derived point with “Beneath the Song,” but what’s lurking under the titular surface is a thick and driving riff that takes hold of the track and doesn’t let go, so that the laid back start turns out to be a setup for one of III’s most satisfyingly heavy movements. Organ, bluesy guitar, warm bass and subdued drums answer back on the cleverly-named instrumental “In-Thru-Mental,” not quite nodding at My Sleeping Karma sonic smoothness – likely that would be too much of a shift from some of III’s sharper corners, but not far off either. Heavy and psychedelic, there’s a build that comes through the layers of Fernandez’s guitar and the central synth line (sounds like synth anyway) carries across a dramatic feeling without pulling away from the groove, which remains paramount and is furthered in the subsequent “Solar Butterfly,” with Lundberg’s drums again providing the groundwork for a start-stop-ish riff that soon takes off into fuller-sounding stonerisms before an airier midsection takes Sgt. Sunshine to a dreamy place they haven’t yet gone. Fernandez regrounds the track with a nod-ready riff, but it proves only to be the basis for further solo work and jamming out, and “Holy Mother” serves as the apex and affirmation of the flow that’s come before it, shifting from rich fuzz in its verse to an instrumental break that consumes a good portion of the track, Hallgren’s delivering some of the best basslines to be found throughout III. As they’ve shown themselves capable of doing all along when they’ve felt like it, they bring “Holy Mother” back to its verse line following the jam, but they save a last blast for the final 30 seconds, and it’s a suitable payoff for the rocking before. That just leaves “Levin” to close out the album as a sweetly-toned acoustic postscript, falsetto vocals coming as a surprise but ultimately not nearly as off-putting as one might think over the course of the 1:56 song, which is over almost before it’s started. In any case, if Sgt. Sunshine don’t have you on board by then, more than likely it won’t make a difference anyway. That said, more likely than not, Sgt. Sunshine’s heady fuzz, righteous grooves, psych feel and jammy meandering will land a blow somewhere along the line and give the experienced heavy rock listener – even one who never worshiped at the feet of their self-titled – something to grasp onto, and the rest of III’s appeal can unfold from there. That’s kind of how it works, with the record singing its hooks into the audience and holding on for the duration. For me, it was right away on “Zoetrope,” and whether or not that’s the case for you, you’ll have to listen to find out, but whatever does it, chances are something will.


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