Ultimately, Hold/Still feels like a true progression for SUUNS — not a complete reinvention, but a distillation of what they do best.
Their essence hasn’t changed, just honed.
They found a home in a world of weirdness and slow down the clock so it begins to look even weirder, melding the best sounds into some color Pantone couldn’t label if they tried.
Suuns have created a record which doesn’t thumb its nose at the existential problems of listener in enjoying and listening to music, but identifies with it and mounts the only truly acceptable response: make music reflective of, and worthy of, our scattered brains.
H/S is an experiment in creating music about strong urges in a world without joy.
Despite its few too many twisted Thom Yorkisms, Hold/Still is a convincing attempt at making the impossibly bleak impossibly toe-tapping.
Suuns' approach to creating music leaves them with a thoroughly unnatural sound with no contemporaries, but after several listens to this one, I’m yet to build an immunity to the enormous dose of discomfort that Hold/Still administers.
Reminds me to some extent of the Bowie album Low. Electronic, independent, progressive music elements cleverly mixed with strident melodies. Several attempts are needed to listen the album in one session. But once bitten off a piece you will not put it entirely away.
#27 | / | Rough Trade |
#67 | / | PopMatters |