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SUNNO))) - Monoliths & Dimensions

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 May 30 2009 at 09:31:38 AM



Cry me a river… The most overwrought, over-hyped, and over-protected release of the year continues to leave the kids and critics breathless, an excessive lot rendered dopey and stoned with the caked-on makeup of a servile birthday party clown. Astounded rubes feign amazement over Sunn’s “latest turn” to modern comp and Jazz! But the core duo always wore influence on its torso; “The Lord” showing his appreciation for Miles in more than a few photo snaps. Little surprise Monoliths & Dimensions cements the association with its first track, “Agharta,” referencing Miles’ 1975 live recording of the same name. Of course it sounds nothing like Miles’ whoa, fuck psych-funk. Instead we are given the overly-familiar low-end guitar groan eventually augmented by Attila Csihar’s Bela Lugosi on Quaaludes bit. Sloshing water and screeching strings offset the endless recitation, but never elevate Csihar’s delivery past embarrassing memories of someone’s Slavic granddad drunk on cheap schnapps and Natural Light. The guitars may as well have been culled from the can. They are strangely unspectacular, lending even more artificiality to a piece already too top-heavy with ambition. 

The most immediate analogue here is Gastr del Sol’s 1996 masterwork, Upgrade & Afterlife, a sprawling, macrocosmic document fusing musique-concrete and a wandering but mathy take on dusty Americana. Swiss born artist Roman Singer lent quirk and circumstance for the cover art; Sunn takes notice and counters with a blot from a giant ink dick courtesy of Richard Serra. The difference here, of course, is O’Rourke, Grubbs, and McIntire are/were music academics. Modern comp wasn’t a dabble; it was a discipline. As a result, the music is stoically cohesive. The delivery is natural, assured – practically organic. Competing sounds don’t come off as ham-fisted mash ups; they mesh fantastically and are pushed to extraordinary ends in several guises (See/hear “Our Exquisite Replica of Eternity” for one of the strongest pieces of modern music in the past 20 years. Honest Injun.). Sure, Sunn tries valiantly. They cut-‘n’-paste freely from their play-lists. Penderecki, Ligeti, Pärt, Earth, a ponderous entirety of the ECM output. Guitars are laid over angelic pomo vox like titanic train tracks. A single bell bongs, its decay erased. Overtly un-swinging brass walks the thin line of learned and bored indifference. 

Hmm, what to do? Well, praise it. It’s confounding. It’s different. Like Miles’ more unruly work, it’s stuff – albeit incessantly boring – made only possible with a troop of professional musicians. An interesting and valid comparison would be Stuart Dahlquist’s Asva, which uses so little to create so much more. But that would be missing the point. Dahlquist’s music IS modern composition; it doesn’t have to masquerade; it doesn’t have to preen and stoop to snooty marketing strategy to simulate “greatness.” Sunn, which began quietly as an Earth cover band, began to quickly buy – lock, stock, barrel – every tangential reference rolled out slavishly from critics, fans, other (lesser) bands. Suddenly the two-chord wonders were cut from the same psychedelic cloth as LaMonte Young. They were electric, white-boy raja; they were a Satanic symphony of improvisers playing the music of tomorrow today. Yada, yada, motherfuckin’ yada. 

Well, maybe they are. The kids certainly think they are. But then again, they haven’t bothered to listen to any of the stuff Sunn shamelessly apes. And even if they did, they’d construct a bogus apologia in a millisecond saying everything copies everything and who the hell are you to judge? Oh, I’ll never take the medicine. You can have your American Apparel hooded heroes. I’ve always liked my Jazz played by Negroes anyways. 

[Stewart Voegtlin] 



SunnO)))
Monoliths & Dimensions
2009
Southern Lord
type: reviews    keywords: doom, drone, lhp026, jazz, honky, fanboys, scott conner's purse, c.v., hoodies,   

Comments (30)

  • 13 comments
    Tim
    11:49 AM on Jun 01, 2009 // reply »
    At last! an honest assessment of Sunn. I can only assume those that profess to love them are either, as you noted incredibly naive, or willfully ignorant, of experimental music before 00.
  • 1 comment
    Hevy Blevy
    3:12 PM on Jun 01, 2009 // reply »
    Mr. Voegtlin,

    I usually respectfully disagree with your critiques and assessments, but boy, did you ever hit the nail on the head with this one. I feel like I have been raped for $15 and the level of praise being heaped on this record by the "independent" metal media makes me wonder if I can ever trust anything they say again. Thanks for keeping it real.
  • 64 comments
    neu konservatiw
    3:54 PM on Jun 01, 2009 // reply »
    The fawning masses might benefit from a book-length collection of reviews like this one as a counterpoint to the vast literature of knee-jerk adulation that has followed this album's release. I would unreservedly recommend Prurient's "Rose Pillar" (digital rip, or otherwise) to anyone who claims that "Monoliths & Dimensions" is "...a disorientating and devastating melee of unheimlich..."(The Quietus) or "...easily the best album that has come out this year."(drownedinsound.com).
    However, I will reserve comment on how well it works (or doesn't work) in light of claimed jazz influences (Alice Coltrane, John Coltrane, Br￶tzmann, Davis, et al.), as I catch myself nodding off at the thought of listening to any of said influences for more than one minute. I've always liked my jazz played by no one.
  • 374 comments
    VOEGTLIN
    7:36 AM on Jun 02, 2009 // reply »
    I loathe most of the "noize" genre, and can sit through about three sober secs of Pruient and the like.

    I don't undestand why anyone would say this recording is "devastating" or "disorienting;" I'm painfully aware of listening to painfully self-aware music while I'm listening to it.

    I genuinely enjoy Grimmrobe and the piece "Richard," but really, wasn't Sunn taken to its logical end after the first recording? For them to carry on, they had to enlist other folks to help them "create." That's not art, that's parasitism.
  • 67 comments
    chauncey chompers
    12:29 PM on Jun 03, 2009 // reply »
    yeah I'm with you on this one Voegtlin. somehow Sunn was awarded some weird carte blanche to do whatever the hell they wanted and the indie press would unwaveringly support it. and nuts to the noise stuff as well. that said I agree with guy above too, I like my jazz played by no one. well said.
  • 35 comments
    Miskatonic
    7:41 AM on Jun 04, 2009 // reply »
    You really piss me off. I suppose thats why I read you. You challenge the hell out of what I like. When I try to be a snob, and understand music on a deeper level than the ignorant masses, I always find there is someone out there who can out snob me. Youre writing is dense, very dense. It takes me a couple of reads before I can really take in what you are talking about.
    Which is similar to my listening habits. I must listen to music a number of times before I feel like I really begin to understand what the artist is doing. So far, Ive only found time for three spins of this new Sunn O))) disc, and Ive been very impressed. Ive been a huge fan of previous works, especially Black One. That is the album that got me into both drone and black metal. So, Im a neophyte of both genres. Hello Melvins, Darkthrone, Earth, Mayhem, Boris, Burzum, Dethspell Omega, Leviathan, Gorgoroth, Drudkh, Electric Wizard, Khanate etc. I never would have met you w/o Black One. So, excuse me if I put that album (as well as the band) on a pedestal. This new one doesnt eclipse Black One. I doubt it ever will. But so far, its been okay. What you say about the guitars, though, may just be spot on. So far, they havent been nearly as spectacular as past efforts. They seem to lack higher frequencies making them a bit blander than Im used to. I do like the optimistic resolve of the album. Who saw that coming? Its great what ASVA is able to achieve, but does that mean that Sunn O))) need to do it like ASVA? I think its in the tradition of Jazz to invite a bunch of professional musicians to operate under the direction of the band leader(s). I imagine OMalley quietly presiding over the sessions by giving the pros hes hired license to experiment with their instruments as he and Anderson provide the drone, then, deftly making the decisions about what makes it on record.
  • 35 comments
    Miskatonic
    7:43 AM on Jun 04, 2009 // reply »
    Continued
    Ive always liked my Jazz played by Negroes anyways.  What a wonderfully appropriate statement. This reflects the purist in us all. The desire to have been the first fan of the originators of a style. You cite three composers/conductors as musicians that Sunn O))) apes. Im only familiar with Ligetis 2001 theme. Im sure the other two have something to do with minimalism. You also cite the obvious one, Earth. Im so glad that you were able to distill Sunn O)))s influences for me. Now, I can be a kid who does bother to listen to the influences. Speaking of that, how much time is a music lover expected to devote to delving into the influences, anyway? Ive never really been into the zeitgeist but I do notice new music. However, most of my music listening time is devoted to digging up the classics. But for every classic I find, Im compelled to go even further back. I can understand the appeal of listening to the forging of old ideas with new executions w/o having to dig up the past. Its easy. Its immediate. Its&better produced. In the case of Sunn O))), its fucking loud! It fucking rumbles in your bones. Its Ligeti gone metal!
    Now, you are right, the kids are going to construct a bogus apologia in a millisecond saying everything copies everything and who the hell are you to judge? So what? Your predictions do not make you any more correct about the quality of Sunn O))).
  • 35 comments
    Miskatonic
    7:43 AM on Jun 04, 2009 // reply »
    Continued
    Thanks for referencing Gastr del Sol. The samples I heard on Amazon were fascinating. Ill have to check them out. However, I must take issue with your obvious analogue. I cant comment on the musical comparisons, but your cover art comparisons are complete bull. Maybe you can do a better job of explaining how those two covers are related in any way? Are you suggesting that because the music is a response to, and the album titles are a response to (they arent, well, they do both have an ampersand) than the art must be as well? That may be true, but you havent presented any reasoning here. What am I missing? Anyway, you are right that the cover isnt all that great.
    So, please keep pissing me off. A true snob needs to be pissed off...
  • 36 comments
    ex.person
    8:59 AM on Jun 04, 2009 // reply »
    Spend a little more time with albums by Darkthrone, Mayhem and Burzum and the difference becomes clear. Sunn is a gimmick band and Black One is a phony, gimmick-oriented and dull record. The bands mentioned above never needed to record someone screaming inside a coffin to seem interesting (or threatening) on record.
  • 374 comments
    VOEGTLIN
    9:54 AM on Jun 04, 2009 // reply »
    Why don't we all sit down, have a few drinks, and work out this "reasoning" thing like the grown men we hope to one day be...
  • 35 comments
    Miskatonic
    11:08 AM on Jun 04, 2009 // reply »
    VOEGTLIN,

    Happy to enjoy a drink with you....

    ex.person

    The Southern Lord people use gimmicks. It's true. Some of them stick in my craw and some are charming. The gimmick of the coffin was billed as contributing to a suffocating effect in the recording. I don't know that it worked, but it certainly didn't hurt the recording. Malefic has a pretty chilling delivery as it is (now, if he would stop making the same fucking music over-and-over). Speaking of gimmicks. The three bands you mentioned could be accused of employing gimmicks. Corpse paint? Leather and spikes? Animal carcasses? Aryan posturing? Church burning? Murder? We like to think we know that these things weren't gimmicks, but the thrill of detecting how genuine the bands were in these actions, at least partially, attracted us to them. Euronymous always sounded very sincere that only a few people deserved to hear their music. Even if he was very sincere, those who distributed the story and their music successfully used their extreme attitudes and actions as a way to attract customers. By the time it reached us, it had been turned into a gimmick. If Euronymous is to be taken seriously, and his music was supposed to be extremely insular, than you cannot listen to it w/o taking part in that gimmick. We are nothing more than interlopers. So, unless you can really say that you were there from the beginning, I suggest you avoid the gimmick that is Black Metal.
  • 374 comments
    VOEGTLIN
    11:12 AM on Jun 04, 2009 // reply »
    Hey.... Ah, I didn't write that comment about Black Metal, hoss. Anyways, I have nothing else to say about this recording. Thanks for readin'.
  • 1 comment
    joe
    11:33 AM on Jun 04, 2009 // reply »
    i think the guest musicians are too much the subject of the work, and that makes the work kinda empty and gimmicky. its possible to use guest musicians and delve into influences without making that into the subject of the work, or your main marketing angle.
  • 35 comments
    Miskatonic
    12:38 PM on Jun 04, 2009 // reply »
    VOEGTLIN,

    Look again. This first sentence was to you. The rest of it was to ex.person. Easy mistake.
  • 36 comments
    ex.person
    8:54 PM on Jun 04, 2009 // reply »
    "Corpse paint? Leather and spikes? Animal carcasses? Aryan posturing? Church burning? Murder?"

    All play into a band's image and mystique, and help garner attention, but it's not like Varg actually used that fuckin mace when recording "Feeble screams..."

    "By the time it reached us, it had been turned into a gimmick. If Euronymous is to be taken seriously, and his music was supposed to be extremely insular, than you cannot listen to it w/o taking part in that gimmick."

    I'll listen to music however I want, thanks. And I think it unwise to evaluate a work based solely on the maker's intentions. You can reason, "so-and-so is trying to do this, does he succeed? to what extent?" But you shouldn't need an instructions guide, or a one-sheet filling in every detail about what novel technique or equipment was used or wow, they got this name to play on the record, neat! Does it stand on its own, does it show or spell out everything for consumption? This is also important.










  • 29 comments
    david
    4:28 PM on Jun 05, 2009 // reply »
    You reference so many things in context that I dig, Richard Serra, ECM, music comp, Gastro, Torti...but end so horribly. Anyways, yeah, some Sunn fans actually have record collections...and taste. Azz.
  • 10 comments
    eettupid
    9:26 AM on Jun 13, 2009 // reply »
    " I loathe most of the "noize" genre"...
    - voegtlin


    why?
  • 374 comments
    VOEGTLIN
    10:12 AM on Jun 15, 2009 // reply »
    Skinny dudes with ironic mustaches and thriftshop clothes on rubbing contact mics together is not my idea of a good time.

    "Oh, that's a woefully stilted representation of the genre! You hack." Etc.
  • 17 comments
    James
    10:08 AM on Jun 16, 2009 // reply »
    It's a little disheartening to hear the noise genre summed up so succinctly but I can't argue very much. I try to pretend that the few who actually do something interesting and, dare I say, profound far outweigh the rest of the crowd.

    The crime perpetuated by the louder/bigger noise guys and by the SUNN0))) crowd has been proving that by talking your way out of any number of half-assed presentations they all magically become lofty artforms in the eyes of people who don't have the mental wherewithal to know better.
  • 374 comments
    VOEGTLIN
    10:22 AM on Jun 16, 2009 // reply »
    Kevin Drumm, old Merzbow & Masonna, and older stuff like Prick Decay, Negro, Whamo, Harry Pussy: I like. I like. Not much new, though.

    James, the bit about CRUDO))) is well-said. Carrot juice, all around.
  • 1 comment
    Visual Agression
    11:46 PM on Jun 16, 2009 // reply »
    So are we going to further argue that Varg's stint in jail was a gimmick as well? Bullshit. Do not attempt to grow brains you plebes.
  • 17 comments
    James
    9:44 AM on Jun 17, 2009 // reply »
    GLaring differences in musical output aside, I don't see the correlation between Varg being imprisoned and any of the blatant SUNN0)) gimmickery (purporting to have locked a dude in a trunk for vocal effect, having someone sculpt replicas of their amplifiers in salt and display them in galleries, all that mess). I don't necessarily see why Varg's imprisonment is a weighty comparison either. Michael Alig killed a guy in a scene too.
  • 35 comments
    Miskatonic
    3:16 PM on Jun 17, 2009 // reply »
    I've often felt that many people who are attracted to underground forms of music are a bit too sensitive about avoiding gimmicks. They tend to deny that any attempt to market the band to them falls on deaf ears. They think they have the power to see past all the gimmickry and magically detect any and all sincerity in music. I would argue that gimmickry is impossible to avoid in this business. Some musicians have gone so far as to completely mask their identity in the name of focusing on the music. Unfortunately, this strategy introduces the element of mystique, which can easily be construed as a gimmick. A musician may be unintentionally sexy, but that still sells records. Yes, pandering to the majority market is a much better strategy for selling records, but pandering to one of any of the minorities means you will sell records to that minority. One strategy is obviously less reproachful than the other, but that doesn't mean it's stripped of all gimmickry. To be truly free of all influence and gimmicks, one must completely withdraw from society, in my opinion.
    Some gimmicks are more obvious than others. Where one draws the line on tolerating those gimmicks is completely up to the music lover, and that's cool. You want to hate Sunn O))) because they tried some ancillary (allegedly) artistic expression. Great. Do that. I just think you need to realize that the music you love and defend is IN NO WAY GIMMICK FREE. May I suggest you take a look at the gimmick spectrum, determine where your favorite bands lie upon it (because they most definitely do) and decide where you draw the line. Then, look at the quality spectrum and discover that the two spectrums can be mutually exclusive if you stop being so friggin uptight.
    I'd rather you hate them for the music they produce, which is still their focus. The problem with this discussion is that it has focused far too much on gimmicks rather than the quality of the music itself&
  • 17 comments
    James
    9:51 PM on Jun 17, 2009 // reply »
    Yes, "gimmick spectrum" et cetera, we weren't all born this morning and need to be told that every band has a gimmick. I'm not sure if your essay was directed at me or at anyone who dislikes SUNN0))), but in my situation the dislike stems from expecting that their records are as they are hyped to be (haute arte black metal influenced jazz influenced doom metal), and finding out by listening to them that their output is basically no frills dark ambient music. That they attempt to mask this with blatant gimmickery (you may substitute "blatant" with "unabashed" or "stupid" if they better fit into your spectrum that way), isn't endearing. Hence the discussion.
  • 35 comments
    Miskatonic
    12:53 PM on Jun 19, 2009 // reply »
    My "essay" was aimed at anyone who likes music. I just think that a lot of the perceptions we hold to are very often flat out wrong. I'm included in that evaluation. I've stated before that Black One really did it for me. I'm inspired by the richness of that record. It really added to and expanded my musical tastes. The sentiment reflected on this site is in direct opposition to mine and I have a problem reconciling that. It feels like Sunn O))) should fall right in line with the sensibilities of you people. So, I'm trying to understand. Thanks for all of your eloquently expressed opinions. But, I really hate comments directed at the ignorant masses. That fuckin' know-it-all, snooty attitude is the stuff of Pitchfork and completely eclipses Sunn O)))'s gimmicks in terms of pretension.
  • 35 comments
    Miskatonic
    12:54 PM on Jun 19, 2009 // reply »
    Blatant, unabashed, or stupid could all be used as descriptors of Sunn O)))'s gimmicks. Just like "haute arte [???] black metal influenced jazz influenced doom metal" and "no frills dark ambient music" could be used to describe their music. However one describes it, I don't think that description holds from album to album. If Sunn O))) are anything, they are diverse (thanks to their collaborators and willingness to experiment). Anyway, if someone asked me to describe their music I'd probably call it drone WITH frills. I figure that willingness to experiment is pretty essential in the drone genre. I certainly wouldn't be buying more Sunn O))) albums if they all were like Grimm Robes and Void. Same goes for Earth after Earth 2.
  • 374 comments
    VOEGTLIN
    1:05 PM on Jun 19, 2009 // reply »
    Thank fuck it's Friday, huh?
  • 1 comment
    Zosimus
    10:47 AM on Mar 02, 2010 // reply »
    This seems like an awfully damning opinion of Sunn0))) for your feelings to have not come up at all during your interview with Stephen O'Malley.
  • 1 comment
    Ronnie Wolff
    9:12 AM on Mar 03, 2010 // reply »
    Two things:
    1) The quality of writing on this website is gobsmackingly bad. I didn't think such inarticulacy was possible. And:
    2)To slam M&D then fawn over Stephen O'Malley in an interview is fucking tragic. It's all about content, eh?
  • 35 comments
    -c
    10:12 AM on Mar 03, 2010 // reply »
    @Ronnie

    1) i disagree, so to each their own.
    2) what's wrong with disliking an album yet enjoying an artist? Stew has great admiration Khanate and Burning Witch and even past SUNN albums. not that he needs any defending, but...
 

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