 Sonna
"Smile and the World Smiles With You" CD
Temporary
Residence Limited
Genres: post-rock, psychedelic drone, instrumental
rock
Temporary Residence Limited
PO Box 11390
Portland OR 97211
Aug 4 - 10 2003 |
Sonna
soothes the dull headache that has plagued me over the past week.
Their melodies enter my ears, process in my cerebral cortex, and carry
away the nagging pain. The hushed beats massage my stiff neck.
Everything seems right again, temporarily. I like the way this music
sounds, and I like the blissful atmosphere it creates.
Smile and the World Smiles With You runs the line between
psychedelic drone music and more conventional instrumentalism. You
definitely can see the hazy dreariness of Landing, Yume
Bitsu, and Surface of Eceyon in their music (the fuzzy
sparseness of "One Most Memorable" especially comes to
mind), although the post-rock sounds of Tristeza and labelmates
Tarentel are also a base for Sonna's style (the complex
rhythms of "The Right Age" are a fine example). The marriage
of these two styles is not farfetched or unusual, but it makes for a
thoroughly enjoyable, relaxing album that is easy to like. Suffice to
say, if you enjoyed Sonna's previous outings, you will no doubt
be satisfied with Smile.
Sonna's roundabout, often gradual sound may limit their
audience to those who are willing to chill out to its subtle melodic
and rhythmic nuances. To the listener with a short attention span, Smile
will be repetitive and annoyingly anti-climactic. Only in "And
The World Smiles With You", the album's last track, does the band
finally succumb to a semi-explosive, wonderfully percussive finale.
But Smile and the World Smiles With You was not made for the
short-of-patience, teenybopper population. This album was made for
those who are willing to enjoy it.
89%
Matt Shimmer
[Vitals: 6 tracks, distributed by the
label, released 2002] |
