Suuns: Felt (Secretly Canadian) Review | Under the Radar Magazine

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Suuns

Felt

Secretly Canadian

Mar 07, 2018 Suuns By Adam Turner-Heffer

Montréal four-piece Suuns have always felt like some sort of alien oddity. They’re not quite indie or post-punk, but not fully electronic either, rather wiggling into a room that allows their space-indebted ideas to drift off into the ether. Over the course of three previous studio records the Quebecois band have honed in their illustrious sound into a sharper product, peaking with 2016’s Hold/Still.

Despite working with the same producer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Sleater-Kinney, Franz Ferdinand) as before, Felt is a far baggier, less rigid affair. In places, Felt feels a lot like Liars’ more recent output, but there’s a distinct feature of the “band jam” that remains crucial towards Suuns’ overall sound.

“Baseline,” for instance, is a perfect example of a song build-up, much as the title suggests, on an excellent bass-line that steadies the ship through the storm of other guitars and synths flashing at unexpected junctures. At times, Felt feels like playing a video game—quite specifically, the Portal series—and it is not at all unpleasant for that feeling. It is rare for a band to simultaneously sound both from the past and the future, and yet Suuns manage it with aplomb here. (www.suuns.net)

Author rating: 7/10

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Average reader rating: 8/10