With their third album, 2019's
Illegal Moves, New York high-energy instrumentalists
Sunwatchers reached their full capacity. The quartet called on elements of wooly psychedelia, politically charged free jazz, folk-blues rambling, and other disparate elements but mixed them all into something both cohesive and uniquely their own. Just about a year later, fourth studio album
Oh Yeah? continues this hot streak, reigning in their tendency to wander stylistically somewhat as they stretch out compositionally. The album begins with a flurry of notes from guitar and saxophone on "Sunwatchers vs. Tooth Decay," a song that quickly settles into a propulsive groove. It's a nervous, skittering song defined by the interplay between wild-eyed free jazz sax playing and guitar freakouts reminiscent of
Sun City Girls' most electrified moments. Much of
Oh Yeah? finds the band sharpening the dynamism of their playing, with long stretches of repetition turning on a dime into tightly structured playing from the full band. "Brown Ice" (perhaps a cheeky nod to
Don Cherry's psychedelically spiritual album
Brown Rice?) breaks out of interweaving, loop-like figures into punchy breaks and brief melodic punctuations. "Thee Worm Store" grows from an ugly, low synth tone into a mountainous riff, grinding uncomfortably as the band grows more frenzied. This song, too, shuffles between tight melodies and segments of noisy abandon. The flirtations with Krautrock and folk-blues that showed up on
Illegal Moves aren't as apparent here. Instead of the assortment of approaches that album took,
Oh Yeah? is heavier and more consistent, closing out its six-song run with the nearly 2-0-minute-long epic "The Earthsized Thumb." Even this lengthy song, which could have easily devolved into formless jamming, is a highly composed and slowly building suite of ideas.
Sunwatchers streamline their vision on
Oh Yeah?, growing into a more unified whole while turning in their most ecstatic and breathable compositions yet. ~ Fred Thomas
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