Sunwatchers - II - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

New York quartet Sunwatchers drew a line in the sand with their last album InchIIInch, a powerful statement of the band's unique brand of spiritual, free-rock, gonzo attitude and a progressive socio-political worldview. InchIllegal MovesInch is their second album for Trouble In Mind. InchIllegal MovesInch is the band's most potent blend yet; a heady potion of free-jazz, psychedelia, punk & noise rock that is both tender and ferocious; the perfect soundtrack to smash capitalism and fix our broken system thru sonic catharsis and revolution. Songs like InchEverybody PlayInch and InchBeautiful CrystalsInch insinuate themselves into your brain with the rubbery synchronicity of bassist Peter Kerlin and drummer Jason Robira. Elsewhere InchNew Dad BluesInch and InchGreeneyed Pigmen (Get The Blade)Inch sting with a righteous fury beyond the piercing scree of guitarist Jim McHugh's electric phin or Jeff Tobias' saxophone skronks, and the band's cover of Alice Coltrane's InchPtah, the El DaoudInch transforms her meditative elegy into a fiery protest march. The songs crackle with an energy informed by passionate disgust of the status quo realized on the album cover's illustration of the Kool-Aid Man battling the personifications of evil from across the world. A psychedelicized avatar for the general wrath and action that they believe in.Inch Album Tracks 1. New Dad Blues 2. Beautiful Crystals 3. Greeneyed Pigmen (Get the Blade) 4. Everybody Play 5. Psychic Driving 6. Ptah, the El Daoud 7. Strollin' Coma Blues

2016 , the proper debut full-length from the New York ensemble featuring former Dark Meat members Jeff Tobias, Jim McHugh and Jason Robira. “Hard to pin down, harder to hold onto; bent circuit board snake charmers unfurl across hexagonal grids. A seemingly familiar sound, but then you realize you have your ear pressed against a reflection. Sunwatchers are a distorted prism to so many past greats reminiscent of Ethiopiques, John Handy Band, Terry Riley, Art Ensemble meets Laddio Bolocko. Forever-swirling saxophone blended belly-to-belly with elastic guitar and tinfoil-thin phin (a Thai instrument not unlike an electrified tenor guitar or sitar); a whirlpool of repetitious interpretations; militaristic marches ascend into meditations. These songs map out great pyramids and deep, buried labyrinths; they are massive, they are leviathans. Amazing cover painting of Handsome Jimmy Valiant by artist Scott Lenhardt—a strange but somehow sensible match made in heaven. Dream machinery, just plain far out. Look for traces of this one in your brain jelly afterwards.” – John Dwyer. Album Tracks 1. Herd of Creeps 2. For Sonny 3. White Woman 4. Eusebius 5. Ape Phases 6. Moroner 7. Moonchanges

Despite (perhaps) being the band's most accessible & melodic work to date, New York quartet Sunwatchers' fourth album arrives in a flurry of notes with the buzzing hum of InchSunwatchers vs. Tooth DecayInch; the title referencing a 1976 album featuring athlete and activist Muhammad Ali. A cheeky nod to be sure, but laced with the utmost reverence. This attitude sums up Sunwatchers' aesthetic in a nutshell; the acknowledgement (typically via the band's irreverent song titles or album art) that the things in life we should take seriously are better faced and understood when disarmed by a wink or nudge. The band may cloak their fiery activism in a jester's outfit, but it does nothing to dull the force of their attack. The one-two punch of InchLove PasteInch & InchBrown IceInch hits next, with the former's tender opening melody punctuated by exuberant InchWOO!Inchs while the latter launches into an urgent, stuttering march that utilizes an effective musical wind-up and , ratcheting up a ferocious intensity across it's near six minute runtime. InchThee Worm StoreInch closes out the first side, beginning with a lumbering synth growl, until it picks up speed and ends as a frantic noisy free-for-all. Side two strides forth with InchThe ConchInch, an obvious 'Lord of The Flies' reference, and a delicious subversion of the idea of a Inchhero's anthemInch weighted down by the trappings of tribalism. The album's showstopper however is InchThe Earthsized ThumbInch, the near twenty-minute closing track. Guitarist Jim McHugh lays down a hypnotic Saharan guitar melody as the rest of the band ushers themselves in one by one over the tune's distinct musical movements, a cosmic InchQuick OneInch for all the heads perhaps? The album's title InchOh Yeah?Inch is at once an homage to Mingus, Thee Oh Sees' album InchHelpInch (whose Brigid Dawson hand-sewed the tapestry adorning the album's