Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound - When Sweet Sleep Returned (TeePee) Keith Boyd 3.27.9
Some bands come at you face forward. They shun the oblique and obscure in favor of direct purchase on your imagination and listening ears. This approach has its benefits. It lets you know straight ahead what to expect and rely upon as a fan. While directness may have its virtues I’ve always found that virtue doesn’t always find a comfortable fit in art. The open ended, malleable and ambiguous is there for everyone to experience in their own way. Art coming from this perspective allows for more colors of the spectrum to break through and speaks to the soul for a longer period. On their previous album “Ekranoplan” San Francisco band Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound threw in their lot with the Sub Rosa freaks of this world and they haven’t looked back since.

Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound is about as slanted and sideways as a band can get. They take in various aspects of Prog, Psychedelic and Metal then stir them in their own sonic floatation tank and extrude a swirled lollipop of sound that is all theirs. Of course there are echoes of the sonic footsteps laid down by others. Hawkwind, Blue Cheer, Crazy Horse and the whole pantheon of “Kraut Rock” come to mind but this is no retro-trip. Like their (somewhat) peers Earthless, Wooden Shjips and Sleepy Sun (two of whose members join in on the wonderfully messy, Daydream Nation by way of Moby Grape epic “Two Birds”) Assemble Head have found that pocket of sound that springs eternal and manages to channel the past but laser beam it into the future.

When Sweet Sleep Returned finds the band in “peak experience” musical form. The recording is crisp and punchy. It delivers all of the fuzz, crust and sprawl while remaining balanced and tastefully listenable. The playing as well is remarkable. At times it verges on the chaotic sprawl of the above mentioned Sonic Youth but just in a nick of time the melodies resurface to propel and hypnotize. Although in some ways this is a continuation of their previous record it also marks a big leap in terms of range, depth and variety. The expanded sonic palette on display here serves to broaden the song writing. These more sophisticated songs still allow for plenty of razor wire jamming but in fact sharpen their impact by providing contrast. Assemble Head is truly making superb art here. All the better that it comes at you from the side instead of head-on and allows room for your own thoughts and feelings.