Released: 10/11/2023
Format: LP, Kool-Aid Sunflare (Red/Blue) Vinyl
Label: Trouble In Mind
Cat no: TIM185LPC1
In the decade or so that hard-working New York quartet Sunwatchers have operated, the group has steadily and subtly refined their sound - a brain-blasting mixture of jazz, psychedelia, krautrock, punk, noise, and Saharan blues - into something that is avant-leaning enough to appeal to the discerning jazz and experimental music fan and weird and wooly enough to get the true heads’ toes tapping. Music Is Victory Over Time is the band’s 5th album, and fourth for Chicago-based Trouble In Mind Records, seeing the long-running lineup of Peter Kerlin (bass guitar), Jim McHugh (guitars), Jason Robira (drums), and Jeff Tobias (alto saxophone and keyboards) in prime form.
Having the distinct pleasure of being the first band to record in John Dwyer’s new LA-based recording studio Discount Mirrors, Music Is Victory Over Time boasts a beefed up sound. The band worked closely with in-house engineer Eric Bauer - facilitator, troubleshooter, sonic obsessive, a legendary freak and a DIY lifer. The band also had full access to the studio’s epic armory of gear: amps, axes (it’s Dwyer’s Eddie Harris model electric sax), synths, a bass guitar once belonging to Klaus Flouride of the Dead Kennedys. Crucial for the sounds and the vibe.
The album art was created by Josh MacPhee, the activist artist, author, archivist and founding member of both the radical artist collective Just Seeds and Interference Archive, a public collection of materials from social movements based in Brooklyn. MacPhee's participation in the project works as a statement of Sunwatchers' progressive utopian intentionality, and organically underscores their involvement in revolutionary projects within and without of their hometown. Listening to Music Is Victory Over Time, Sunwatcher’s rebellious spirit & unbridled enthusiasm remain fully intact, but the secret sauce is their infectious irreverence in the face of the horrors of this world. Much of our best cultural commentary is Trojan-horsed to the general public via humor and satire and the band has a knack for lacing the ridiculous with the radical. It’s good to have them back.