In 2010, Solar Bears crafted an album that is at once an homage to Andrei Tarkovsky, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Stanley Kubrick films by way of Tangerine Dream, Ennio Morricone and Boards of Canada.
I’ve not been this excited about a band in quite some time. With Boards of Canada in silent-running mode for six years now, and no one taking up the mantal of warped film soundtrack music, Solar Bears appearance on the electronic music scene couldn’t have come at a better time.
Indeed, the guitar sounds often invoke the work of Boards of Canada on 2005 album “The Campfire Headphase,” an underrated gem now largely forgotten in the near constant onslaught of overhyped “indie” bands.
Do not mistake Solar Bears for a BoC clone, however: they really explore some vastly different sonic terrain and tempos on their debut album “She Was Coloured In.”
The song “Perpetual Meadow” mixes the folky electronica aesthetic of “The Campfire Headphase” with Underworld’s song “8 Ball” off of the “The Beach” soundtrack. The video (below) is set to footage from Alejandro Jodorowsky’s film “Holy Mountain” (adapted from the fantastic but unfinished book “Mount Analogue” by surrealist author Rene Daumal).
“The Quiet Planet” sounds like an admixture of the 70s French band Space, Tangerine Dream and Giorgio Moroder with a more driving beat. The duo of John Kowalski and Rian Trench would probably not deny the derivation going on in this song; either way, it’s sort of amusing because of the cheesy science fiction associations that surface from the dark corners of the listener’s memory.
The highlight of the album without a doubt has to be “Dolls,” which sounds so different than the folky-bohemian-baroque music we’ve come to expect (without naming names). It opens with a Morricone-esque synth string section, followed by a warm synth bassline and delicate guitar plucking. When the beat finally drops, it doesn’t so much come crashing through a glass ceiling, but sneaks around the song’s event horizon, bringing up the tail.
By 2:25 the beat and the now rumbling and blistering bass are propelling the song into what sound’s like a children’s choir, around which wrap stemwinding synths. It all gives way to icy, chorus-laden guitar riffs. Believe me, it’s not cheesy but thrilling. You want to hear this song tunneling down an abandoned street as you stand between skyscrapers. Fantastic stuff.
If you can dig the sort of influences that Solar Bears are disassembling and rebuilding into midnight science fiction cult soundtracks, check out “She Was Coloured In”—you will not be disappointed.
“Perpetual Meadow”
“Dolls”
[via Dangerous Minds]
