Sub Pop
Incorporating world music sounds into contemporary indie rock is decidedly in these days. Whether it’s the primal vocal harmonies of Animal Collective the clean African guitar tones of Vampire Weekend or the plethora of bands who have discovered polyrhythms people are getting a lot of mileage out of placing foreign elements into western guitar-bass-drums rock. Naturally some of these experiments work better than others. One group that has got it right is The Ruby Suns whose sophomore album Sea Lion respectfully plays musical tourist without becoming ostentatious.
The album begins awash in atmospherics and lazily picked acoustic guitar before “Blue Penguin” transitions into a sun-drenched rhythmic shuffle around gorgeous island harmonies. “Oh Mojave” follows finding the band exploring a dusty Latin beat while madly strumming Spanish guitars. Sea Lion then dives into “Tane Mahuta” brimming with boy-girl harmonies sung in Maori overtop of steel drums and a lurching horn section. Next up in the musical mosaic is “There are Birds” which is equal parts My Bloody Valentine shoegaze and Mercury Rev dream-pop played over a glitch-hop beat.
It’s all a bit confusing at first — and album closer “Morning Sun” which begins as a vocal chant before unexpectedly evolving into an angular post-punk ending doesn’t help the feeling of bewilderment — but Sea Lion does eventually reveal itself to be a breathtakingly beautiful album. In the end it’s not the smorgasbord of styles influences and cultures that make Sea Lion important it’s that the songs are great plain and simple.
