Illegal Moves

Album review

Following 3 Characters, their sprawling 2018 collaboration with avant-garde guitarist Eugene Chadbourne, Sunwatchers have returned with a new album of gloriously energetic music that blends psychedelic aesthetics with the fury and ethos of punk. For good measure, there’s an Alice Coltrane cover (“Ptah, the El Daoud”) thrown into the mix, and it fits in perfectly. Sonically, the band frequently pairs frenetically played guitar with a wailing saxophone, and it’s impossible to pin down where their sonic lineage might take them next. (That said, both Oneida and the Lounge Lizards would serve as good points of comparison.) They’re equally at home circling around a particular rhythm and letting the melody take off into a freer space. But there’s also a series of contrasts to be found in their music: “Greeneyed Pigmen (Get The Blade)” and “Strollin’ Coma Blues” suggest irreverence, but the ragged energy that they bring to their sound indicates where their hearts are. Perhaps, like the works of Mike Watt (who also turned up on 3 Characters), Sunwatchers have found the appropriate balance between the surreal and the urgent. © Tobias Carroll / Qobuz