Believe it or not, every one of us was a child. And I suppose that every small human loves fairy tales, even a lot of adults also like it. If you find yourself in the last sentence, then right for you could be the debut album Charms from young Russian band Sun Q. Vocalist Elena told me in interview that this album is like a big book with gloomy fairy tales in a beautiful hardcover.
And I must agree with her with the first tones of Petals And Thorns. Exceedingly magic stoner-psychedelic song with immutable atmosphere. Really gloomy fairy tale, where exactly guitarist Ivan create extraordinary instrumental side of it.
And if we sum it with beautiful voice of Elena and great work of drummer Pavel (I love cymbals thanks to Johnny Kelly), result is clear. Geniality. On the opposite, After This is really optimistic tune with some influence of jazz.
But it does not take anything from its quality. There are also some another optimistic songs on the album- Jimmy The Pirate, Plankton or the last Winter Lady. Anyway, acording to my promise next songs are beautifull gloomy stories.
For example, Secret Ways has real possibility to became queen of stoner. I can totally imagine it-dark bar, dimly light on the scene with group, glass of wine in the hand and free flow of ideas in head. Next genial creation. Circus Is Coming, I think that this song will not lost also in chanson.
Simply diversity. And right it is the biggest positive of the album. We can see antagonism of gloomy songs against the more optimistic, or intelligent mixture of genres. I like stoner and psychedelic rock and way which music of Sun Q walks is far away behind my expectations.
I have not listen to album with such magic atmosphere for a long time. Even the optimistic one have this atmosphere. Another genre, which is possible to hear is jazz, mainly thanks to rich arrangements. Or true garage rock. The word rock is the right brand, because there is no so significant influence of metal.
But it does not matter, that there are no hard passages. Beside the big amount of great riffs we can hear also some more melodic passages and guitar solos. It seem, that in Russia grow new guitar hero Ivan, but next musician do their job also in a very very good way- drums by Pavel or bass by Denis. Alike the vocalist Elena with her nice voice.
Some sum up. Charms is debut album, but still genial. Rich instrumental side as combination of more genres with magic atmosphere. Words about fairy tales are true, because it is hard to believe that great CD like this could be record in our world.
Lineup:
- Elena Tiron – vocals and lyrics
- Ivan Shalimov – music, guitar and arrangements
- Denis Baranov – bass
- Pavel Potseluev – drums
Tracklist:
- Petals & Thorns
- After This
- Dancing Souls
- Secret Ways
- Space
- Jimmy the Pirate
- Circus is Coming
- Plankton
- Winter Lady
Year of Release: 2017
Label: Indipendent
Youtube teaser:
Links:
https://www.facebook.com/sunqband/
https://sunqband.bandcamp.com/album/charms
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP48GayIVXlHpB-72bzBizQ
Score: 6/6