Zeroes QC, the debut-album by the Montreal experimental rock band, Suuns, doesn’t always hit the mark. There’s just so many ideas going on here — ambient soundscapes, post-punk, pop, krautrock, electronic rock, visionary alternative rock in the vein of Radiohead — it’s as if they’d been storing them up for years and had to get all of them out, now, neither willing to scale back their ambition today, nor save any scraps for later. Yet, when they are on target, as on “Arena,” the results are mesmerizing. Here, repetitious, electronic melodies saved from new wave days gone by, overlap with scathing and seething guitars in a dimly lit post-punk setting. And while the title, “Arena,” would seem to imply a grand, overblown movement is imminent, that moment never comes, as no one element (Electronics, guitars, rhythm, or vocals) ever tips the cleverly balanced whole.
MP3: Suuns – Arena
