There are hundreds of bands out there vying for our, increasingly, limited attention spans. Making something that sounds different from the mass is one way to get noticed but it’s risky – all too often, if the listener can’t immediately grasp what they are listening to it is just put aside without further investigation.
Until The Sun have a very different sound than the mass of bands I’ve heard over the years, dark and soulful with huge space and an incredible focus on the bassline. They describe themselves as a Blues band with touches of jazz, psychedelia and indie rock mixed in and I’d probably go with most of that but I would say that they have a very different take on the Blues to most other bands. The vocalist, Alyssa Swartz, has a deep and bittersweet vocal style and guitarist Brandon Teskey plays some exquisite solos. Jay Zarecki on bass guitar, and Chris Tex on drums produce a brilliant foundation for Swartz & Teskey to leap up from.
The album itself is quite different. Not too many bands have the brass balls to play an album of almost entirely unheard tracks to an audience and release it as a live album, especially since they state that the new tracks will never be released as a studio album. That it works is quite a testament to their abilities.
They have eight original tracks – all written by Brandon Teskey – and covers of the evergreen ‘At Last’ and a very fine ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and their own material stands up well.
Overall a brilliant album, one that I will be enjoying a lot I feel.
