Solar: Six Suns
Six Suns is a double album compilation of the Six EPs released by Solar throughout 1998-1999 on their own label Diablo Fuel. Recording on to tape, either a Tascam 4-track or an AKAI 12-track, using an e64 sampler to generate beats and loops, Solar were part of the 90’s lo-fi revolution – the collision of new digital technology and the analogue world. They stood in direct opposition to the Britpop scene and believed that each record they made was an opportunity to discover something new about the world. Listening to the breadth of influences crashing into found sounds and bizarre loops across the 24 tracks in this album is quite a trip. And we’re just talking about the sonics – the songs themselves are even more remarkable. ‘Pale Morning’ and ‘Somebody On My Side’ are great country songs that would not be out of place beside the work of Gram Parsons or Leon Payne. ‘Everything That I Need’ is a psychedelic sneer at the world of aspirational consumerism – a ‘Satisfaction’ for the post-E generation. There are electronic wonders such as ‘Seconds’ and ‘Journey To The Centre Of The Sun’ and looped-up voodooed experiments in rock ‘Headshake’ and ‘New Killers’. ‘Sure’ kicks it off – playlisted by Xfm and featured as a single of the week by the NME – it’s a thrilling walk through dystopia, guitars bents so out of shape they are barely recognisable. Like Drury’s artwork the music is a window to another world – in some way familiar, tinged with kodak-colour nostalgia – at the same time brand new and still fresh some 15 years later.