Blending aspects of dark electro, dissonant art rock, and plodding indie rock, Suuns, formerly named Zeroes, utilize minimalism in their wide-open (and often paranoid) sound. After their first EP, which was also titled Zeroes, they recorded an LP with the Besnard Lakes' Jace Lasek at Breakglass Studios in their home city of Montreal. Upon Lasek's recommendation, the ten-song outing Zeroes QC got the attention of Secretly Canadian, and Suuns signed to the label in the autumn of 2010. That October the album was released, just as the group started touring with the Besnard Lakes and Land of Talk. Sophomore effort Images du Futur arrived three years later, further exploring the dark sounds the band began on its debut. The album was included in the longlist for the 2013 Polaris Music Prize. It was 2015 when Secretly Canadian released a collaborative record on which Suuns and friend Radwan Ghazi Moumneh of Jerusalem in My Heart had begun work in 2012. The long-labored album took years to complete, and found the band's minimal electronic approach winding around Moumneh's Arabic influences and complementary synthesizer sensibilities. Suuns then recorded their third proper album with producer John Congleton at his Dallas studio.
A one-way ticket to the darkest and most somber corners of the human souls. This is usually what every album from Suuns sounds like. With Hold/Still released in 2016, the Canadian band dived a little bit more into this protean rock ‘n’ rock that can’t decide between sick psychedelia and experimental deflagrations, whether carried by saturated guitars or elegantly Stakhanoviste electronic beats. As often with Suuns, you hear krautrock in the style of Can or of the Neu!, shoegaze stolen from My Bloody Valentine, post-punk in the style of The Fall, electro in the style of Warp, and many other things more or less avant-garde… As worrisome as it is fascinating, this Fourth album is quieter than the previous ones. Suuns somewhat lets loose and gives birth to a less clinical recording, more organic and handcrafted, but that does not mean it is less oppressive. Once again: it is not for the faint hearted.
