-=- SHGZ -=-
* Shoegaze * Indie * Post-Rock * Grunge * Dream Pop * Psych-Rock * Ethereal *
ARTIST..: Sianspheric
ALBUM...: The Sound Of The Colour Of The Sun
GENRE...: Indie
STYLE...: Shoegaze, Space Rock
YEAR....: 2001
LABEL...: Sonic Unyon
COUNTRY.: Canada
PLACE...: Hamilton, Ontario
ENCODER.: FLAC 1.3.1 -8 -V
BITRATE.: 833 kbps avg
QUALITY.: 44.1kHz / 2 channels
SOURCE..: CD
TRACKS..: 10
SIZE....: 312.87 MB
URL..: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sianspheric
http://www.sianspheric.com/
http://www.facebook.com/SIANspheric
- TRACKLIST
1 Audiphone 6:08
2 To Myself 5:15
3 Tous Les Soirs 4:50
4 Childrenrunningthroughovergrowntallgrass 1:35
5 QFD 5:59
6 Radiodiffusion 6:47
7 Slightly Less Sunshine 5:26
8 Ending Is Better Than Mending 4:02
9 So Blue 5:00
10 Everything's A Wave 6:04
Total Playtime: 51:06
Sianspheric (styled as SIANspheric, and previously as SIANspheric4) is a
Canadian space rock and shoegazing band originally from Hamilton, Ontario.
This group were early signees to the Sonic Unyon label.
*
The history of Canadian space rock/shoegazer darlings Sianspheric is
obviously full of turmoil, filled with constant lineup changes, several
periods of hiatus, and so on, but three years between Else and the release of
The Sound of the Colour of the Sun may have been the most potentially
problematic. Marking the return of original member Paul Sinclair and the
addition of bassist/guitarist Locksley Taylor, you wouldn't think the group
would be able to transition smoothly into this album -- but they do. The
songs bleed together effortlessly, maintaining that My Bloody Valentine-esque
sound, with a dash of Verve thrown in on tracks like "To Myself," which is
especially evident in the vocals (A Storm in Heaven Verve, not Urban Hymns).
Sianspheric never really seems restricted by their fuzzed-out and hazy sound;
the album, which clocks in at just under an hour, never gets monotonous. In
fact, it is the slow development of tracks -- like the haunting "Slightly
Less Sunshine," which takes over three minutes to reach its pinnacle -- that
makes the album as a whole so mesmerizing. While this insular nature may keep
Sianspheric tied down and grounded to a certain amount of stylistic
development, you'd never even think such a thing was true after listening to
this album. They certainly have a long way to go before this material and
style go stale for them, and maybe that's why their turmoil and ever-changing
roster never seem to phase them; perhaps that's what keeps things fresh.
*
Sianspheric returns for their first full-length studio CD since 1998's
There's Always Someplace You'd Rather Be. While bassist/vocalist Steve
Peruzzi has left the group, original second guitarist Paul Sinclair has
returned, and with him, some of the magic that made the band's first album,
Somnium, such a winner. But rather than going backwards, Sianspheric forge
boldly ahead, still drawing on the noisy sonic textures that characterized
their previous album, but veering mostly away from that album's industrial
feel. On The Sound of the Colour of the Sun, the noise soothes, especially
when softer, flanged guitars lying beneath accompany it. Sean Ramsay takes up
lead vocal duties, and his voice has a gentle, summery, psychedelic feel to
it, which adds nicely to the overall ambience of the album.
The opening track, Audiophone, introduces the mood of the rest of the album
perfectly, with its deep, deep layers of delayed and sliding guitars,
building slowly, introducing more and more noise till it fills your entire
headspace with undulating sonic waves. Tous Les Soir begins with a beautiful,
moody intro before exploding into an almost impenetrable wall of sound
whitewashed with noise. By contrast, QFD is a slow rocker, which melts into
an astonishing noisescape that gives the feel of being in the cargo hold of
an old airplane as it careens across the sky.
At this point, the band, seemingly having got the clamor out of their system,
slips into a distant, mellow feel that sustains the rest of the album. It
begins with Radiodiffusion, which starts off as an easy jaunt of bright
percussion and reverbed guitars before sliding into a mellow and spacey cover
of an old Smith's tune, eventually getting washed over in a haze of
gloriously soft feedback. In fact, throughout the album, Sianspheric tend to
use feedback and noise in the way other bands might use keyboards, like a
string section comprised of deep space signals rather than violins. Sometimes
the effect is almost hypnotic, such as the waves upon waves of noise at the
end of Slightly Less Sunshine. Locksley Taylor's piano also adds a nice
melancholy touch to songs like Ending is Better Than Mending, which also
features some truly haunting, ghost-like guitar wails. The album ends on its
strongest note, with the amazing Everything's a Wave, as tones and effects
cascade past each other, forming an endlessly shifting and shimmering, hazy,
late summer soundscape. It would have been nice, in fact, if this track had
been a little longer. At four and half minutes, it's over all too soon. There
is however, a bit of a hidden track that follows it, a little instrumental
epilude, featuring once again, the piano of Locksley Taylor.
My only quibble is that the CD's cover art could have been more interesting.
I recall the deliciously moody cover art of Somnium, and the stark but
evocative cover of There's Always Someplace... and I wonder what this cover
is supposed to be telling us. That aside, although The Sound of the Colour of
the Sun may not be as immediately accessible as Somnium, it is a more complex
and mature work, worth the effort, through repeated listens, to discover the
subtleties of sound within its depths.
-=- SHGZ -=-
-=-=-==-=-=-
Shoegaze
is a genre of alternative rock that
originated in the late 80s. The genre is very
difficult to define, and it is even more difficult to evaluate music
within it. Generally, the genre is characterized by its
shimmering vocals, reverberating guitars, and
textural distortion that create
a tranquil, opaque
feeling.
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