Whilst I clearly have an undeniable bias towards bands with jangly, acoustic or simply loud guitars, its good to be pushed towards Albums that have been produced very differently. And whilst the debut Album ‘Damages’ from Danish band Sun on us, has taken some listening to, I’m glad I’ve put the time into it, its rewarding and very different. Its classed as ‘Repetitive Pop’ with influences as far flung as ‘seventies kraut, progrock and eighties sci-fi movie soundtracks’, and the reality you need to go in with an open mind if youre not familiar with any of those genres.
The Danish duo first joined together in 2007, but originally came from very different musical places Rune got his start in music as a heavy metal drummer, while Rasmus started as a vocalist in a hardcore punk band. There are little indication of these influences in Sun on us.
‘Cold’ opens up the album, and the most obvious thing to point out is that this is simply really slow and melancholy. But its absorbing, with its layered on organ sounds and very individual vocals, and through all the synths a trance like melody emerges. ‘Damages’ is a better track still, taking off where ‘Cold’ ended, but with the synths pounding out a distinctive Chorus line and simple but effective repeated lyrics – ‘don’t breath until I say’, which seems to suit the ambience of the track.
‘Colony’, which is instrumental is maybe less convincing to me, as whilst the sound builds throughout the track, I simply wanted a bigger noise, as is the 5th track on the album ‘Shades part 1’. But I have to put this down to my own lack of familiarity with this type of sound. However ‘White’ is powerful, with rasping Andrew Eldritch style vocals whilst ‘Weekend’ is a fine end to the album.
I’d imagine that this is all pretty captivating and intense live, and I really hope one day to have this experience. I’m still not entirely sure that ‘Damages’ will be first choice on my Playlist when I get home at night, or that I’m a convert to this genre, but Sun On Us have produced an engrossing album, hypnotic and interesting, and i've really enjoyed my time familiarising myself with it.
Nordic Music Review 7/10
'Damages' is released on El Capitan Records, and is available digitally and on cassette tape.