Suns of Thyme

Fortune, Shelter, Love and Cure

Written by: BV on 14/07/2013 22:20:22

Suns of Thyme is the name of a German psychedelic quartet whose debut release, “Fortune, Shelter, Love and Cure”, initially piqued my interest due to a recommendation from a friend whose musical taste is very similar to that of my own. So what makes Suns of Thyme special in this day and age, if all they do is play psychedelic rock? Well, they do it with raging authenticity, that much is certain.

As the slowly driven first track of the album, “Violent Eyes” makes its appearance the soundscape is oddly minimalistic and is primarily driven forward by a simple riff that neither has great deals of distortion nor massive amounts of echo. What it does have, is electrifying simplicity and a purely hypnotic groove to it that literally demands the attention of the listener – much like the rest of the album that has yet to come.

With “Soma (God For Gods)”, the guitar becomes slightly grittier but also slightly more psychedelic as the swirling phaser effect is quite dominating on the guitar sounds. The vocal work here, as well as on some of the other tracks, is not particularly interesting and could actually have benefitted from the much used, nearly overused, echo-drenching that is favored within the realm of psychedelia as it could have made an otherwise dull vocal performance seem more lush and spacious – so as to be more coherent with the rest of the soundscape.

The previous troubles with the vocals seem to be vanishing slowly from the rest of the album as we approach album-closer “Earth, Over” – an eclectic piece dominated by a heavily effect-laden acoustic guitar and a vocal performance mostly reminiscent of radio-chatter from a space-shuttle combined with the mythical chants of an ancient sect. the beautifully orchestrated background vocals also enforce this particular impression with their simple, yet effective ‘aaah, ahahaha’ type of chanting in the background. The soundscape is lush while retaining a strong sense of minimalism as there is only the acoustic guitar, a groovy bass-line and the various vocals to support the performance. – A truly psychedelic performance that is perhaps the most successful track on this release.

Suns of Thyme are not wildly innovative but they are ridiculously groovy at times and they do seem to have a knack for creating lush soundscapes. I’ll be watching these guys closely.

7

Download: Earth, Over; Violent Eyes, Blue Phoenix Tree
For The Fans Of: Yonin Bayashi, Tame Impala, Golden Animals
Listen: facebook.com

Release Date 12.07.2013
Electric Magic


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