Sulu Babylon - Colour (Self-Released)

Sulu Babylon is a band from the United Kingdom. A power trio…that’s, perhaps, the best appellation to give them for it is both factual and accurately descriptive. A trio they certainly are, and there is undeniably a great power in the force they impose. On their new EP Colour they express a lot and cover a surprising range of territory in only six songs and a mere twenty five minutes, achieving something most bands strive for in an entire full-length album.

A great bipolarity lies within the music of Sulu Babylon. On one hand, yes, they are a power trio, distortion and thunderous drums ripping through their songs, yet on the other hand they’re also intensely emotional, almost to the point of mawkish sentimentality. The opening song, for example, “See It In Colour”, is loud and surly with its intensity, but the lyrics themselves and the way they are delivered sound as if you’re actually witnessing the audible unhinging of the singer, and its this dichotomy that is so appealing about this band.

One of the greatest songs here is “Children of Sailors” a song at once both angular and jagged, and properly British and stately. It’s infectious, and for all the grit, insanely catchy. Occasionally the songs here seem to run into one another, sometimes making it hard to distinguish one from another, but it’s consistent in its forcefulness, and anytime there seems to be a moment of relent, it’s quickly obliterated by another gut punch of explosive guitars.

The writer William Faulkner once said that in a novel, an author can make as many little mistakes as they choose, but in a short story, everything has to be in line, and with some slight liberties, a similar effect has been achieved here. Colour is a strong, and consistently fine release by a band with obviously a lot more great things to come.