Sunburned Hand of the Man - Fire Escape (Smalltown Supersound)
4/5
By: Charlie Potter
First of all just chill out, alright? Stop worrying, stop reading these words so fast, slow down. Slow right down. Stop thinking 'oh, I don't know if I like this band...' for a moment. Stop trying to formulate an opinion. Oh sure, you might think, 'oh, but I need to know whether I have enough time for this band or this album...' Well, let me tell you, if you're in a hurry, this album is not for you. This band aren't for you. You might be thinking 'oh, but is it going to sound just like all the other Sunburned Hand of the Man stuff?' Well the answer here is yes. 'Which of their albums? There are loads? It's not like I'm going to be able to buy all of them, is it a classic Sunburned album or not?' Forget all of this. What matters is that this is a Sunburned Hand of the Man album, and it exists.
If you can maintain this way of thinking for any length of time then you're ready for 'Fire Escape'. It's not an album that needs thought to enjoy whilst it's on, for that, you just need to make sure that the music's on and you're comfortable. Some of you may be thinking I should get to the point, but if you're thinking that, then you're not going to enjoy this review, this album, or this band at all.
I'm listening to this now and I feel good. I never really understood psychedelic music until I heard it. It redefines psychedelic in a way that I can grasp. Over its course the sound goes from the almost funk-like noodlings of lots of people playing around at once through to a huge wide unified force, and it's very much as if by the end of the album the music has taken over and is leading the band rather than vice versa. As such the album does have a great progression from start to finish, which is something you may not expect on first listen.
All that being said, I wouldn't want to give the impression that this album is all about aesthetics. It's more about loving music and people playing it in one of its purest forms. You could easily and very predictably say that any group of people could get together and just jam like this and record it and release it. The point is no one else would want to, Sunburned Hand of the Man do however, very much. They would be making music like this even if everyone else did release stuff like it. No matter what was going on around them in the cultural climate I seriously believe Sunburned would be making music like this, which is why it is some of the freest music in existence. The fact that it does get released and made widely available is a gift that I for one would think it would be rude to question. Just listen to it, and be grateful that in our bonkers society some things do slip under the radar and happen for the right reasons.
You can read a book listening to this album, you can play along to this album, you can sit and do nothing to this album. Owning this album makes you get in touch with the more basic reasons that you like music. Forget all your formalities - there are formal explorations on the CD of course, but they are there because they felt like it, not because they had to do anything conventional for the sake of their pockets. It's like the only thing on Sunburned Hand of the Man's itinerary is to just be a band and forget about all of the boring effort that seems to come with it.
Artists in this article: Sunburned Hand of the Man
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