Although they have been with us for many decades now, the genres found in the less defined, more dream-state part of the sonic landscape – shoegaze, dream pop, noise rock – have never made up anything more than a minor part of the rock and roll story. But, I would say that might be changing, based on the amount of music finding its way to me these days, by bands which seem to have at least a working knowledge of Ride if not a record collection which contains the whole My Bloody Valentine back catalogue. Sunstinger are certainly a band heading that re-energised charge into the public consciousness. Finally, a resurgence I can get behind.
Of course, Worthless, their latest EP, is anything but. It consists of five songs thick with cavernous and sonorous guitars, resonant drums, and the overall anthemic style that grunge later tried to pass off as its own creation.
As you might expect, this is music built from weight rather than melodics, although that’s not to say that there aren’t melodies here; it is just that they are buried under swathes of squalling sonics, in the same way that arch noise art attackers, Jesus and Mary Chain hid their pop credentials under feedback and frenzy.
Heavier than some of their earlier sounds, thanks in part to the addition of David McCulloch to their ranks, this is music which is simultaneously nostalgic, its most obvious influences coming from the late eighties and early nineties, and forward-thinking in that it is also finding its own unique way through the musical landscape. If music is cyclical, and evidence suggests that it is, then it is likely that, rather than being an echo of the past, Sunstinger are a portent of the future. How great is that? (Very. The answer you are looking for is very great.)
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