In Case You Missed It: Sun:Monx Shine Bright On “Power Salad”
–Written by Kevin Madert
One of the strongest driving factors in my endless musical pursuits is interconnections. The always expanding universe of music and the musicians who inhabit it is like a four dimensional puzzle, each figurative piece interwoven with tens, hundreds, even thousands of others by myriad aural tendrils. More simply, music is a sprawling game of “Six Degrees,” – although I’d wager almost everything under the umbrella could be linked in far fewer steps.
Your move, Mr. Bacon
All that fancy word-wrangling to say, this week’s ICYMI is a work of commendable subtlety born of collaboration. Australian duo Sun:monx – one part New Zealand born, Melbourne-based glitchman Opiuo, one part six-stringer and fellow Aussie Austero – put out a debut record three years ago called Power Salad. The ten track LP is full of slow-oscillating basslines, sensual brass, and a bevy of guitarwork that spans the stylistic spectrum.
Some of what I enjoy most about this album lie in its atmospherics. It figures the less you have to play with, the more important each element becomes, and that’s definitely true here. Power Salad weaves in birdsong, crickets, calm breezes, even the murmurs of soft-ebbing ocean waves, all without overwhelming the musical direction or feeling otherwise overdone. As a result the album is thematically cohesive, listening more like a single journey than ten stops along the way.
That’s not to say the album lacks variation. “Parma Panorama” is a slow-burning tune equal parts reggae and downtempo dub. By contrast, upbeat tracks like “Kow Chow” and “Rokkit Snot” sound like fret-frenzied Opiuo b-sides. And then there’s “70 Percent Cocoa,” which closes out the album in a dreamy haze of introspective instrumentation – if you listen close, I think you can even hear a harp plucking away beneath the piano melody. Front to back, Power Salad keeps the listener guessing on the first go-round and equally engaged on subsequent playthroughs – a testament to Opiuo & Austero’s ability to craft songs both collectively uniform and individually diverse.
If my blabbering hasn’t convinced you (or even if it somehow has), give the full album a listen below via the official Sun:monx Bandcamp.
Connect with Sun:monx: (Facebook / Bandcamp / Soundcloud)