The Sun Travellers are an Amsterdam based band which formed in 2006, this, their first long player showcases their talents as a Prog/Psychedelic band. Running in at 41 minutes and 46 seconds, this is a perfect example of a band who excel in creating the type of music that falls within this genre.
Opener, ‘A Thousand Stars’ basically sets the scene for the whole album, starting off with synth bleeps before progressing into a dreamy guitar line. This is slightly reminiscent of The Doors ‘Moonlight Drive’, with good strong vocals and a nice line in lyrics: -“The higher we climb, the harder we will fall” and
“Who are we now, the ones that fell from grace?”
‘Calypso’, which follows is a cool jazzy instrumental with New Orleans style 70’s guitar and steady drumming.
‘Shades of Madness’ is altogether heavier similar to ‘Wall’ era Pink Floyd, with disturbing edgy lyrics: -“Holding on to understand or to make believe, a lonely soul tormented to achieve”.
This is followed by ‘Skywalker’, which at over six minutes long and with a bass heavy groove, is really catchy. The lyrics however seem a little less well-thought out: -“Floating in space a man is just dust. Walking in the sky will you believe.”
But this detracts little from what is otherwise an excellent number.
‘Insomnia (part 1) is a musical interlude with short snatches of conversation that would have been used to close side one of a vinyl album version of this CD.
‘Miss Escapade’ is possibly one of the best tracks on the album, being a nice dreamy slow rock number. Some of the guitar parts could have been transposed into one of Serge Gainsbourg’s better 1970’s work without seeming out of place. A slightly sad edge to the lyrics gives this an extra bite:“All those moments when you fought for yesterday/ Now distant memories and the dues you have to pay, all those drifters that led you astray.”
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‘Spirit Dance is an hypnotic drum and bass heavy virtual instrumental which despite a degree of repetitiveness has a degree of nervous tension not seen in a lot of instrumentals since Pink Floyd’s ‘Interstellar Overdrive’.
‘Mirrors’ is probably the only track I didn’t really like, as although the synths work well with the rest of the orchestration, and the lyrics have a desperate haunted air, it feels a bit like we’ve been here before.
‘Company Man’ ups the stakes considerably, being a bitter but accepting take on working for the man: “I am a company man, take the money when I can/ Need no union scam and no Government plan”!
From this, it edges into despair and desperation: -“I’ve got a wife and three kids, man I’ve really hit the skids.It’s getting harder to live”
After this, where can you go? ‘Insomnia (part 2) is a quick outro, which leaves you with a feeling afterwards that this has been quite a good listening experience. This band is certainly worth looking out for when the CD comes out next month.
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