A new name for 2024, SoftSun are a doom-laden shoegaze/desert rock trio featuring a few familiar faces. Guitarist Gary Arce will be known to some as a member of both Yawning Man and Yawning Balch; vocalist Pia Isaksen is a member of Superlynx, and Dan Joeright is the drummer with Earth Moon Earth. Between them, they’ve created something that sounds different enough from their parent acts to make SoftSun an immediately effective side hustle.
‘Unholy Waters’ introduces this supergroup in classic style when a deep, fuzzy bass and slow drum sets up a perfect doomy melody. Arce’s echoing guitar accentuates a trippy desert rock vibe that gives the musical base far more depth, occasionally delivering notes that sound like a heavily distorted take on The Edge’s atmospherics from side two of U2’s ‘Unforgettable Fire’, and these sonic textures often provide the musical highlights here and elsewhere. Pia is left with the job of lifting the mournful melody to somewhere even more interesting, and with the aid of a cleanish tone that contrasts the heavier mood, her pseudo gothic tones sound absolutely haunting – much like a more epic take on Mercedes Lander’s presence on the early White Swan EPs. In terms of a gothic/desert blend, this is perfect. ‘Exit Wounds’ adopts a slower approach, but every effort has been taken not to just descend into a doomy heaviness. Instead, a solid bass groove sets a base over which Gary weaves various tonal arcs, always layered with distortion and delay to boost Softsun’s trippier aspects, whilst the vocal fills other spaces with atmospheric melodies that are perfect for the style. You might expect Pia to take a dominant role here, as vocals often become a huge focus on gothic tunes, but there are times when her echoing, mellow vibes drift into places that sound like extra instrumentation, making her the perfect foil for the guitar work which continues to carve sonic shapes against a rhythm that barely shifts across these six minutes. In terms of dark atmospherics, this is definitely an album highlight.
Stretching out – time-wise, if not stylistically – the band’s eponymously named epic increases the layers of fuzz bass, ensuring a slightly heavier sound in places, but any concessions to doom are offset by a simplistic piano motif supplying the track’s main riff. This is definitely a band keen to show a different aspect to their chosen style(s) since the cleanliness of that riff promises something very accessible despite the doomy tempo ensuring the results will still appease lovers of the bleak backdrops that SoftSun have quickly made their forte. By the time Arce steps forth with a few soaring guitar moments, it becomes clear that the main inspiration here comes from all things Floydian as opposed to the usual Kyuss love, and despite the rhythm never changing, between some superb guitar work and a dream pop is vocal, this number is absolutely stunning. Nobody would imagine these musicians to turn out something that sounds like a Frankenstein created hybrid of early Floyd, goth rock and the shoegaze elements of All About Eve’s opinion splitting ‘Ultraviolet’, but the underground rock scene already feels richer for it.
On another highlight, the title track shares faint echoes of SuperLynx’s doomy approach, but not much more than that in terms of links to Pia’s other band. The slow tempo here works a huge bass sound very effectively, which gives this track a massive amount of muscle. Rather than immediately attacking the listener, the atmospheric trio spend seven minutes laying down yet another slow blanket of sound, which eventually culminates in Arce weaving a world of reverbed lead guitar, feeding an almost shoegaze-ish layer of noise into the funereal, desert-based groove. This doomy fuzz rock creates the perfect vehicle for a heavy, echoed vocal and Isaksen sounds very comfortable behind a wall of effects. She seems to very much understand that, at times, her and Arce’s contributions are in danger of bleeding into each other, but this relative lack of separation only serves the band further since it creates even more of an otherworldly atmosphere. Like the bulk of the material featured on this long player, he mood of the track barely changes throughout the duration; instead, it sets a tone, layers that with extra noise, and eventually works a hypnotic groove that shares a very dark take on a desert rock sound. It’s fair to say that if you’ve in any way found a connection with any of SoftSun’s other tracks, you’ll find just as much to love here.
Rounding out the release, ‘Dragged Across The Desert Floor’ is a track that shines more of a spotlight on Isaksen’s unwavering bass work as she drives the number with a brilliantly distorted sound, while Arce – as per the SoftSun norm – launches into various bursts of lead guitar that straddle desert rock, psych, and even shoegaze layers of noise, and ‘Continents’ opts for something even slower, venturing into the realms of a gothic shoegaze blend. As you might expect, this deeper sound favours both Isaksen’s vocals and bass, and allows for Dan to settle into a doomy groove, but still allows room for some impressive lead guitar work, exploring more of a progressive feel than your average desert band. It might seem a little less interesting on first listen, but stick with it: the way the fuzzy bass work offsets a great vocal is responsible alone for making it a great listen, and obviously, Gary’s guitar work remains truly distinctive.
This debut album is a real treat for fans of stoner and desert rock sounds. It’s also got plenty to offer the more adventurous lover of dark psychedelia. Its six numbers present extended workouts, but unlike Arce’s work with Yawning Balch, these are far more than jams. The material, even in its longest, most tripped out guise, centres around song-oriented works, which allows Pia plenty of scope for great performances throughout. Naturally, the songs aren’t necessarily catchy enough to be an immediate hit, but over time, they’ll really get under the skin of the average stoner buff in the best possible way. A highly recommended listen.
October/November 2024