Sun Collective – MOVE \ R E M O V E
Independent – Out Now
There are moments when music just hits you and you’re forced to accept it, there simply is no other choice. Such is the case with Move\\Remove by Sun Collective. Discovering this EP is like discovering you actually breathe. You simply can’t live without it. Infecting your every pore it takes hold and won’t let go. You have been captured in its thrall.
Caimin Gilmore is no stranger to music, he straddles a number of musical worlds, playing double bass in both orchestral and folk-rock settings. He’s worked with Lisa Hannigan, Damon Albarn, Zach Condon of Beirut and Deerhoof’s Greg Saunier. That’s just a small part of his resume. On Move\\Remove he manages to find a way to capture and distil sounds in ways that would seem to be at odds with his song structures yet end up worming their way inside your ears in the most delightful ways.
The acoustic piano of Oisin Peelo – Walsh that opens “Swallow” seems almost childlike in its design, yet when Gilmore’s high, sweet tones come in things begin to turn. The song examines personal trauma while examining the multiple meanings of the word. There are a number of off-kilter sounds on “Starve It,” yet rather than feeling out of place they seem to hold down the edges in ways that serve to focus listeners toward the centre.
There are little things that make all the difference on “Roots.” The song begins as a fairly standard folk track yet things begin to change upon the entrance of strings, later followed by Nick Roth’s saxophone wandering into the picture leading things on a darker path. Just as it appears to enter into the territory of free jazz, it pulls back into an area of more restraint.
Sam Perkins then follows on piano with “Reflection on Movement,” the first of two instrumental interludes. Rather than being a palate cleanser, Perkins adds another form of shading. “Move \ Remove” follows adding more bass to the piano and combines with strings in a most moving way. Not surprisingly, when asked about his favorite song lyric of all time, Gilmore quotes from “Madame George” by Van Morrison, “Down on Cyprus Avenue/ With a childlike vision leaping into view/ Clicking, clacking of the high heeled shoe/ Ford and Fitzroy, Madam George…”
The piano at the heart of “Move \ Remove” plays the kind of jazz licks that were on display throughout Morrison’s Astral Weeks. It becomes a sort of connective tissue spanning generations, albeit one with a slightly more nervous sax. Likewise, Sun Collective provides Move\\Remove with the kind of sonic energy that requires a fearlessness to explore, but the results pay dividends.
Order via Bandcamp: https://suncollective.bandcamp.com/album/move-r-e-m-o-v-e