With an intro that almost feels like a false start, Sun Tunnels announce to the listener in the first few bars of “Brynn” what they’re ostensibly about: psych-garage rock built on the trio of guitar, bass, and drums. They spend the next four minutes showing what kinds of magic can be woven with those tools in regard to arrangement, dynamics, structure, and even tone.
From that subdued opening to its near-frenetic close, Sun Tunnels apply a number of tricks to suggest various types of movement. The guitar and bass follow a progression centered on a D Mixolydian mode with a mediant borrowed from D minor and a return to the major tonic, followed by extended rests from both instruments on each run. This adds both color and a sense of unrest (that borrowed flatted third also suggesting power), while the drums alternate between straight beats, rests, and semi-fills. But the band never actually stray from their chosen tempo, even when they turn the dynamics from grinding chug to soft breakdown and then bring everything back up for a payoff outro.*
Guitarist/vocalist Louis O’Callaghan uses his voice to great effect, moving from keen-eyed victim to yowling accuser to half-hearted philosopher and finally determined victor as he lets his subject know that he’s more than aware of what’s up and has designs of his own and that, ultimately, it’s all good—”you can play me because I’m playing you and we’re none the worse for it,” in a sense. Modern romance, except that some small sense of remorse or hurt peeks through in those occasional strangled yelps and breaking coos.
Sun Tunnels will play at the Ball of Wax 56 show on June 20th at the Blue Moon. Don’t miss it!
*About that payoff outro: built on the strength of a rhythm section going for broke, O’Callaghan twice delivers a simple ascending-descending tremolo riff that declares “modes and scales be damned” even while reaffirming the mixolydian on the way up and allowing the inclusion of the flatted third on the way down. But why are you reading about it? Go listen and then thank Levi for knowing exactly how to open a compilation!