Suntrodden - Suntrodden III
Suntrodden might
seem like it's a band. Honestly, the name sounds like a band name. The music
even feels like it would be produced by a group of twenty-year old guys. That's
because it sounds a lot like the post-prog, dream-pop, shoegaze based stuff
that's so popular in certain circles these days. Of course, if it were one of
those bands, this project would probably have a name like "Yesterday I
Went to the Store" or "I Saw A Dog Walking Down the Street." In
any event, this is actually a project of just one guy, Erik Stephansson of Atlanta ,
Georgia Georgia
The first song,
"There's a Place," reminds me of some modern progressive rock.
It has a trippy kind of element that works really well. "Pure"
doesn't gel as well as the first one did. It manages to rock a bit more in some
of the later sections, but it's less progressive rock oriented to me.
Next comes one of
the most purely progressive rock oriented things here, "Moonflower."
The song has some interesting changes and really works well. It's one of my
favorites of the set. The prog elements aren't as prominent on "Never
Again." The tune doesn't seem as strong, either. It's a decent song by
itself, but doesn't hold up against the rest of the music here, really.
I make out more of
that moody modern prog sound on "The End (Haunt Me)." It is another
solid track that works well to drive it to the end. I suppose you can't get
much more appropriate than titling the final song, "The End."
Overall, I think
this does best when it strives for that proggy territory and lands in the general
vicinity of it. The rest is definitely not bad. It's just not as strong as the
prog-based stuff. It's obvious that Stephansson has talent. He also does a
great job of seeming like a full band rather than a solo artist. I think that
when he gets the most ambitious is when his skill set really shines the
brightest. When the music is written closer to a "play it safe" mode,
it just doesn't soar quite as high.
If I were to make
another complaint, it would be that Stephanson should work on incorporating a
bit more variety into his music. The falsetto vocals that are all over this are
fine, but they lend a monolithic feel to the sounds in a lot of time. Using a
different vocal style or just including an instrumental to break things up,
would go a long way toward creating more variety.
Similarly, there
isn't a lot of change from song to song in terms of pacing or tempo. A really
slow tune added in or something that's at a fired up and moving beat set
between some of these tunes would really allow it to retain a fresh vibe
throughout.
The thing is, those
complaints or just of the "keep it in mind for future work" variety.
What we have here works well as is. Sure, there is room for improvement. If
there wasn't, it really would be pointless to go on, right?
SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/suntrodden
Steve Rafferty
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