Everything about Sundress is unexpected and full of promise. From Denton, Texas emerges a solid five piece that performs a surprising blend of hypnotic, trippy and trance-like music which is at once a noisy disorder and stunningly beautiful.
Sundress creates a beatifically chaotic racket filled with noisy, squalling guitars caroming off of one another while staggered beats drive the rhythm onward. The vocals on most songs are heavy with effects giving the feeling the voice is one more instrument adding texture and depth to this sonic landscape.
The music isn’t easily pigeonholed. There are slabs of psychedelic sound without being indulgent or monotonous. There’s an indie-pop sensibility, with driven and unrestrained guitars reminiscent of Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner’s transcendental performances on theRock and Roll Animal LP.
The band is currently on their first extended tour outside of their nativeTexas, and it has them travelling as far south asMiamiand then up toNew York. The ongoing roadwork is paying off as the band works their way through the music on their exceptional self titled EP.
Bloom unfolds itself languidly with chiming guitars propelling it forward leisurely in calculated strides, a sleepy witness to an inevitable daybreak.
Sailor’s Vision plays out the way distant lights shimmer through a heavy mist; with the offhand feel of watching a dream in real time. This is very possibly the best debut released by an independent band this year.
And what of the band name? They needed a name and it was the one they all hated least. And it grew on them as they grew into their music. It makes the band hard to define at a glance. Who they are, what it might mean, and what it may become, but the ambiguity suits this 5 piece. Sundress breathes fresh air into their songs, dense and spare, refusing to be cliché as they explore an audio palate so often played with a ham-fisted touch.