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| | Arts Calendar / November 27 / Concerts |
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 Canada's Suuns are Montreal-based band who pulse, throb and drive motorik rhythms right into your heart - and where better to do that than in the white hot heat of the live arena? Formed by Ben Shemie, Joe Yarmush, Liam O'Neill and Max Henry in 2006, they took a few years to release their debut album and it wasn't until 2010 that Zeroes QC, released on Secretly Canadian, was heard. A dark and brooding record mixing prog and krautrock, it pulled off the tricky task of sounding like a band who had been doing this sort of thing for years. Following it up with "Polaris Prize" nominated album Images Du Futur, Suuns added some wig-outs to their repertoire, aiming to push their sound beyond any borders they may have inadvertently created for themselves. Suuns really get into their music when they're onstage; this is head-down groove music, each member getting lost in the song as the band lunges through the heartbeat pulse of "2020", the brooding drone of "Minor Work" is intensified by Ben Shemie's mumbled vocal and traditional set closer "Arena" is an explosive mix of electronics and sterling guitar work. Sure, you can listen to the records but why not go out and listen to this music where it was meant to be heard. At this juncture it's clear that Suuns are a different beast now. They're tighter, slicker, and even more calculating in their approach. It's no surprise after more than a year of touring North America and three trips overseas. "Images Du Futur started as some jams written (during that time), some of which appeared live towards the end of our Zeroes QC tours," says Shemie. In 2012 they returned to the jam space. Set against the backdrop of the student manifestations, they built on their new songs and started writing and rehearsing a bank of new ones in January. "The climate was one of excitement, hope and frustration, and we found ourselves lucky to be in Montreal at the time, and not on the road," adds Shemie. "We were trying to look at our music from further and further away, seeing more details in the picture as we expanded the landscape." The opening lyrics sum up that mood: "Got it together, I read in the paper, all of these strangers, stranger and stranger... No, no, no, no, how you try and remember, how all of these pieces, all fit together." Suuns took to the studio in May, and again in September, with Breakglass producer Jace Lasek. The end result is a profound sense of poise, not only from their sound, but in their creative vision. They've been praised in the past for their compelling restraint, their ability to morph the sonic mood within a song, and this type of shape-shifting is taken to new dimensions in the slick, opiate-laden swells of "Edie's Dream." It has a fetching swagger, a dream-state motion that unifies the album and offers a soothing interlude to the harder edges sculpted earlier on. Whether Images Du Futur is fueled by the long hours on the road or the pulse of Montreal's social uprisings, it still boasts the typical Suuns-wrought iron, expanding even further on the deep-house-Detroit textures, electronic plunges and layered guitar squalls. The upbeat drums and chants of "Sunspot" are initially reminiscent of earlier call-to-arms anthems, but then venture into spare repetition and temporary collisions of pedals and fuzz. The album's title track (a name inspired by the technological expositions in Montreal between 1986 and '96) is a shoegaze foray of abstract effects that betrays the band's indelible patience and winds the mood down to a drowsy standstill. It's the perfect lead-in for the subsequent plodding beats that gradually accelerate into a rhythm; the final ditty culminates in another wistful guitar riff, backed by a haunting, derisive laugh track, with Shemie crooning, "Your music won't save you." The first Suuns' concert in Moscow will show what is difference between the band in the studio and the band on the stage. More info
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