SUN ATOMS release the highly anticipated debut album: ‘Let There Be Light’.
Commemorating its release, the project fronted by Jsun Atoms and featuring guest appearances from Peter Holmström (The Dandy Warhols, Pete International Airport) Alex Maas (The Black Angels), Jasno Swarez (The Vandelles) and more, are unveiling the video for its final single: “Captain Tunnel Vision”.
Watch the video for “Captain Tunnel Vision” here:
A song about art and perception, its lyrics are inspired by the singular: Nick Cave. Viewing an interview in which an aspiring artist asked the Australian star about how to share art with the world, Cave coolly reassured them that they simply had “nothing to lose”. Taking heed of this advice, on “Captain Tunnel Vision” Atoms unfurls obtuse observations in a deathly dark drawl; unwavering words from other worlds land like thick blobs of paint on a wet oil canvas, fresh with ideas: “Get lost, we’ve got nothing to lose, the rain comes down and dries your eyes from the blue blue blues”, sings Atoms.
With its loping basslines adding a sense of gothic noir and a warped mariachi brass sections straight out of the apocalyptic outback (courtesy of Portland horn man Mars de Ponte), “Captain Tunnel Vision” is a fitting homage to the Prince of Darkness in more ways than one.
The track arrives with a suitably surrealist official video from Romanian filmmaker, Popii. With a reputation for ingenuity and the avant garde in her work, the “Captain Tunnel Vision” video touches on themes of creativity and destruction, as shots of Jsun Atoms writing in his studio, conflict with scenes of records being smashed to smithereens.
“The second layer of video is composed of the adventure of a box of vinyl records found in a dumpster” reflects Atoms of the video. “Popii spread these on the ground at the filming location and had members of the band run over them on electrical bikes and spray water on them while she danced, shoveled, threw clover seeds, and hammered nails into them.” Watch the full video here
The director, Popii, can also be heard to be singing a mantra in her mother tongue on “Praying Mantis”, the final track to be heard on Sun Atoms’ debut album: ‘Let There Be Light’ – which also receives its official release today, via The Acid Test Recordings label in Europe and Little Cloud Records in the USA.
“Captain Tunnel Vision” follows recent singles “The Cat’s Eye” and “Don’t Take Me To Your Leader”, with all three tracks illuminating the path towards Sun Atoms’ explorative long-player: ‘Let There Be Light’.
An album that refuses to be pigeonholed, the songs of ‘Let There Be Light’ range from songs dipped in Lenoard Cohen’s ‘Natural Born Killers’ kind of darkness (“Captain Tunnel Vision”), to Cure-esque new wave numbers (“Half Robot Half Butterfly”), to Eno/Byrne polyrhythmic journeyings (“Don’t Take Me To Your Leader”). Elsewhere, the dark dance-pop of songs like “Fell For You” give a respectful nod to Manchester and all the 24-hour party people, while side two’s “Super Switch Kid” has almost a Motown ear-candy meets a tripped-out and dressed-down Prince feel. The album closer, “Praying Mantis”, a melange of Stereolab sonics meets Mary Chain esotericism, repeats a Romanian mantra that reminds us to “not get so bored that we pick at our ass until it bleeds”.
Ensuring that this prophecy is something that never comes true, the record is produced by Peter Holmström of The Dandy Warhols, while London’s legendary Stephen Street (Blur, The Smiths, New Order, The Cranberries) mixes; contributing an inception like layers of innovative sound and detailed vision over the course of the album’s 40 minutes.
Eight tracks that all loosely revolve around the star that blazes at the middle of the solar system; ‘Let There Be Light’ fuses styles and sounds like a long-lost Basquiat painting found in deep space among comets and stars. It is released on all streaming services today.
SUN ATOMS – NEW ALBUM: ‘LET THERE BE LIGHT, OUT 1 OCTOBER 2021PRE-ORDER THE ALBUM VIA THE ACID TEST RECORDINGS HERE || LITTLE CLOUD RECORDS HERE
NEW SINGLE: “CAPTAIN TUNNEL VISION”WATCH OFFICIAL VIDEO HERE
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Sun Atoms is the alias of Portland, Oregon artist and producer Jsun Atoms. As a member of The Upsidedown and Daydream Machine, he has supported the likes of The Jesus and Mary Chain, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Allah-Las, and Luna, My Bloody Valentine’s Colm Ó Ciosóig and more. Atoms’ music has been featured in more than 40 television shows and movies including Sons of Anarchy on FX, Ray Donovan on Showtime, Animal Kingdom on TNT, and True Blood on HBO. Atoms’ music has been praised as a “shoegazing vortex that sucks you in never lets go”. In 2021, he is currently curating the line-up for the Portland Pysch Fest and will release his official debut album as Sun Atoms: ‘Let There Be Light’.
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SUN ATOMS – 2021 LIVE DATES
22nd Oct – Star Theater, Portland (with The Prids & Nate Wey and the Dreamers) – TICKETS
23rd Oct – Lofi Performance Gallery, Seattle (with The Prids & Fotoform)
19 November – Mississippi Studios, Portland (w/ Casey Neil and the Norway Rats & Alla Farrah)
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‘LET THERE BE LIGHT’ – TRACK-LISTING
- The Cat’s Eye
- Half Robot Half Butterfly
- Captain Tunnel Vision
- Don’t Take Me To Your Leader
- Super Switch Kid
- Fell For You
- Two Wolves and a Lamb Voted on What’s For Dinner
- Praying Mantis
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FOR MORE INFORMATIONf/ https://www.facebook.com/sunatoms/i/ https://www.instagram.com/sun_atoms/t/ https://twitter.com/sun_atomsLabel: https://littlecloudrecords.com/
