SUNTAN
Send You Home (Kimchee Records)
Reviewed by Erick Mertz

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What makes Suntan's album Send You Home so great is the Boston area foursome's ability to take what made Janes Addiction and particularly Three Days so frightfully epic, jam in a little Jesus and Mary Chain for good measure and sustain that sound for over fifty minutes. Especially characteristic of this unique sound is the long slender title track where for twelve minutes the jam, stoned and relentless, strings along like a beautifully constructed lie. Vocalist Nick Holdzkum sounds so much like vintage Perry Farrell one can close their eyes and see the bean pole regaled punk crooning while listened to "Rising For You" or "The Next Ones." This isn't a statement of perceived mockery -- it is a compliment to the band's rare ability to carve out of the ether, a divine and coherency.

Send You Home rocks back and forth, swaying dreamily like a fine shoe gazer album should. It is heavy on the sonic effects and seems to have, unlike an enormous majority of other albums floating around out there, aspirations to push the limitations of its sound into another stratosphere -- or another rarified air sought tenaciously by this psychadelica outfit. The seven songs here represent more than enough propulsion to reach this or any other moon.

© 2003 - Erick Mertz