New York ensemble
Sunwatchers
have developed an instrumental language that draws from the urgency of free jazz, the intensity of punk, and the joyful wandering of kosmiche musik. Their fifth album,
Music Is Victory Over Time
, presents an especially dynamic set of new tunes that convey radical perspectives in both screams and murmurs. For this album, the band worked at Discount Mirrors, the Los Angeles-based studio run by
Thee Ohsees
'
John Dwyer
, and the production is more defined than on previous efforts.
' calling card has long been a psychedelic rock reading on the revolutionary spirit of peak mid-'60s free jazz, and opening track "World People" is perhaps their most euphoric example of this. Saxophonist
Jeff Tobias
and guitarist
Jim McHugh
fall in and out of explosive melodic themes and overblown solos as bassist
Peter Kerlin
and drummer
Jason Robira
anchor the chaos at a blasting tempo. The song spills out in multiple directions at high speed, especially as overdubbed layers of synths and more guitars come in, but the band is in complete control the entire time. The hyped up "Too Gary" is somewhere between video game car chase music and
Cluster
's damaged synth funk, zipping by like the band was collectively on their third pot of coffee when they tracked it. "T.A.S.C." (shorthand for "Theme for Anarchist Sports Center") has the same bludgeoned quickness of
John Zorn
's
Naked City
, but the band takes the energy down for the Eastern-toned groove of "Foams" and the spaced-out lounge dub of "There Goes Ol' Ooze." The dancing twinkles of synth, guitar, and swimmy tape echo repeated on "There Goes Ol' Ooze" take
into rare territory of subaquatic beauty that
Sun Ra
stumbled upon in his
Lanquidity
sessions, and is one of the most interesting moments yet in the band's already captivating catalog. They take another new turn in closing track "Song for the Gone," ending the album with a mild, simple song structure that's straightforward but perfect for communicating loss and memory.
continues
' consistent habit of growing more expressive and musically nuanced on every new album without toning their sound down in the least. ~ Fred Thomas