Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound: When Sweet Sleep Returned

It doesn’t take long to realise just how good a record this is. By the time the second cut ‘Two Birds’ drops Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound have either sunk their hooks or sent you running. What I like about this record lies beyond the riffs, buried in the overall tone and effect of listening. The soaring choral hook on ‘Two Birds’ exemplifies the ecstatic excitement running through the whole record. Listening to When Sweet Sleep Returned feels like flying a big kite in a big wind; you get picked up now and then, it pits you against your own gravity with sky-high fantasies.

The first two things that struck me were the blurry mix and the indelible, catchy riffs. The songs form a multicoloured smoke of organ, dreamy vocals layered in the upper atmosphere, chugging bass, ecstatic drumming and a bare minimum of two electric guitars (one jangly, one bluesy/incendiary). All of these instruments are audible, but the hazy production is many a mile from the super-compressed, super-separated modern mixing techniques that dominate (and decapitate) much modern rock.

This is all testament to engineer Tim Green, as he is also one of the only producers capable of turning the aforementioned technique into something rewarding. Here he has tailored his skills to the band in question; it sounds nothing like Howlin Rain’s Magnificent Fiend, nor does the production recall his work on the last Six Organs of Admittance studio record. There is an unbreachable distance between you and the song, but when something needs some emphasis the whole band strains as much punch out of their instrument as possible. It gives you the impression that they love these songs, and their enthusiasm translates. What more can you ask of a record?

Parts of Sweet Sleep are rightly drawing some comparison to Comets on Fire (see ‘Clive and the Lyre’), but if you’ve never quite enjoyed sipping from their noisy cup don’t be put off. My wife walked in on a track and after barely a few seconds she said it reminded her of R.E.M. Initially I wasn’t sure where she had heard a connection but on further listening the chords, the guitar sound and even the bass and drums began to recall their late eighties to early nineties period. I then listened to the album Document and started to get the feeling that Sweet Sleep is its blissed-out space rock brother.

I should add that Document is one of my all time favourite records. Many of the sweetest vocal melodies are truly reminiscent of the elliptical folk style that Michael Stipe employs so well on tracks like ‘Disturbance at the Heron House’, ‘The One I Love’ and ‘Finest Worksong’. Listen to ‘End Under Down’ and ‘By The Rippling Green’ and tell me if I’m wrong. The arpeggios of the chorus coloured guitar on ‘The Slumbering Ones’ conjure the same ghosts from the woodwork of American folk.

There isn’t much of a shift in pace or aesthetic throughout the forty minutes, but there is a well crafted order. For every two minutes you get to spend basking in the blood-warming light of a glorious vocal harmony there comes a chilly eclipse, battled through with some spacious synth and a fair share of gnarled and fuzzy guitar solos. They have a real knack for both extremes and are surprisingly good at knitting them into cohesive and individual tunes. It may be a woozy blur, but a landscape appears along the journey and memories are formed. These are the kind of post-hippies I can relate to.

It goes without saying that Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound owe a lot of their sound to late 60’s and early 70’s space rock. As such I’m sure that if I played this record to a veteran they would delight in telling me that it sounds just like this or that Hawkwind track and that they “didn’t know bands were still making music like this”. I don’t even like the records that they tell me are being ripped off. In the past I felt like this was a slight on my enthusiasm for a modern band and despite not being able to articulate why, I didn’t think they were quite right. Today I feel a little more able to explain myself.

Bands like Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound have not only absorbed those influences to the point that they can hold their head in such company; they have also absorbed a broad array of sounds from the 80’s and 90’s. Alongside R.E.M I can hear echoes of the Meat Puppets, the intonations of Elizabeth Fraser (of the Cocteau Twins) in some of the backing vocals and even Screaming Trees on tracks like ‘Drunken Leaves’.

It’s also of note that experiencing a band play this kind of music in their prime with this much vigour is a timeless experience. Just knowing that they’re out there feels like a kick on your behalf in the face of bland conformism and the limp strut of passing fashions. Not having listened to Assemble Head before I can’t say how this fits into their development as a band, but I get the feeling that this is the sound of them finding their feet.