ALBUM REVIEW: Clustersun – Out Of Your Ego

ARTIST: Clustersun

RELEASE: Out Of Your Ego

RELEASE DATE: 28/04/14

RECORD COMPANY: Seahorse Recordings

Italian dreamgazers Clustersun have flitted at the periphery of my consciousness for awhile now, but after reading a positive review of their work in Big Takeover Magazine and hearing them on the now defunct Flyweight show on college station WZBC, I knew I had to check them out. They also appeared on a compilation I reviewed recently called “Revolution – The Shoegaze Revival”, where they trotted out their trippy band of post punk on a song that also opens this album called “Hipgnosis”.

 

The opening bars of “Hipgnosis” wouldn’t be out of place on an early Pink Floyd album, though the vocals are uniquely Clustersun’s. “Meteors” starts off with an almost trademark ominous bass line (which I dig), but that cold wave feeling is quickly nixed by Marco Chisari’s upbeat vocals. “Be Vegetal” is a fine piece of post punk that could have been released anytime in the past 30 years, betrayed only by modern production methods. “Planar I” (is anyone sensing a space theme here?) is a long, spacey song punctuated by trippy electronics and swirling psychedelia. By the 5:30 mark, it transforms into something else altogether, a veritable sonic feast with many layers. The excellent “Nebula” sounds a lot like the great English band, Sad Lovers and Giants, at least vocally. Maybe it’s a question of mood too, as the band brandishes melancholia freely. “Floating” is also in this vein, with some very nice atmospheric guitar work. Then we have “Planar II”, which also has that English post punk vibe, guitar work sliding into Chameleons territory. The song is short but dense, and sweet in the way that good music always is. The band closes the album with the self-titled “Clustersun”, a simmering space rock instrumental. I could actually see them opening a show with this!

In any case, this album has been out for a year and the band sings solely in English and they go well beyond the sometimes limited realms of shoegaze. It’s a really cool record from a promising young band who just finished up their US tour. Let’s hope they come see us again!

LINKS:

facebook.com/Clustersun
twitter.com/Clustersun
soundcloud.com/Clustersun
clustersun.bandcamp.com
reverbnation.com/clustersun
youtube.com/Clustersun
vimeo.com/Clustersun

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 

Music has always been a driving force for Elizabeth Klisiewicz, which she days “continues to define my existence”. During and after her college years, she ran a weekly radio show at WMUA FM Radio and also at a community station in Springfield, MA, in addition to writing music and concert reviews for the college newspaper. At present, she writes for The Big Takeover Magazine and The Active Listener Blog, and recently began producing a semi-regular Mixcloud-based show called The Kitchen Sink. In the real world, when not writing technical manuals, she gets her thrills from reading mysteries, birdwatching, and can always be found with a camera and a maxed-out storage card full of music.