If you want to know what it’s like to claw your way out of an oppressive desert and into a watery mirage, than Sun Araw’s latest album makes for a good aural equivalent. These half-dozen tracks are feverish and frantic, but lurch along in a slurred, stumbling manner. They slowly evolve, but never make a complete whole.
The Inner Treaty meanders its way through the middle ground of day and night, caught somewhere between awake and asleep. Sometimes it riffs along like a stuck record, but it thrashes about within its confinements, forcing you to uncover a melody somewhere within its big, squelchy mess. Just when you think every element is starting to get in sync, a new instrument will dart in and turn the rhythm on its head. Cameron Stallone’s vocals are variations of the song titles, yelping commands like “Out of Time! All Around!” or ‘Like Wine! Alright!”. Somehow it never sounds too cluttered, with the production afforded more clarity and the music less weighed down by drone than previous albums.
Earlier in the year, Sun Araw dazzled with a live performance at the Sugar Mountain festival. Stallone’s recordings usually sound more like raw captures of these kind of improvised live shows than actual albums, and The Inner Treaty is no exception, but that’s all part of their wibbly-wobbly appeal.
BY CHRIS GIRDLER
Best Track: The Summum
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: 936 PEAKING LIGHTS, Platoon MAGIC LANTERN
In A Word: Amorphous
