AXE x 2

Ecstatic Sunshine – Freckle Wars (Carpark)



Pretty awesome cover art here I think. Stare at it for a while - you'll feel all funny.

Now it just so happens that a lot of my preferred music over recent months has been that which involves two people playing guitars, and nothing else. Why is this? I dunno… I just like guitars I guess. And I like the soothing feeling of open space provided by the lack of fixed rhythm, additional instrumentation or attention-commanding vocals. I like the sound of two skilled, intuitive players pulling beauty out of the air through co-operation rather than via a single master ego. And, y’know, guitars man. They’re pretty cool. It’s pretty fucking easy to impress me with one. Two? All the better, come on in.

So, perfect timing for me to come across the debut album from Ecstatic Sunshine – 28 joy-filled minutes of two guys, two electric guitars, and nothing else. And I know that’s gonna be a hard band-concept to sell to a lot of weary music-eaters, simply because there are so many clichés and pitfalls such a set-up could easily be subject to. But Ecstatic Sunshine manage to side-step the lot of them, pulling off a neat little record in a style that is – to my ears at least – reassuringly original.

So firstly, let us tick off what Ecstatic Sunshine are not:
They’re not a pedal noise/drone duo ala Growing. Neither are they another Load records-style ADD-afflicted cartoon aggro assault unit (thank god). And they’re not some kinda blissed out, roots-stretching ‘Deadheads. They are entirely untouched by the ubiquitous spirits of Fahey/Basho/Takoma. And there’s definitely no improv shred on display here either – these guys play tight within solid compositions. They don’t work with classic rock / metal in any immediately obvious manner either, and although there is some fiendish twiddling to be heard, neither are they a gang of Fucking Champs-esque semi-ironic virtuosos.

Now let’s move onto what they are:
Brief, snappy songs in which neat, trebley, mildly fuzzy guitar-lines loop around each other, fighting or fucking like tripped out, delinquent Disney squirrels – here a diddleiddleiddle, there a DUR-DUR-DUR, then up they zoom up into some weird inverted Marquee Moon-meets-Black Dog melody/riff, then down the helter skelter and back off to their opposite corners for a quick hop around like wheeee… nice one dudes!

It’s such a pleasant change to hear some complex, instrumental rock music where the watch words are ‘playful’ and ‘fun’… not to mention ‘short’. Enjoyably goofy from time to time, such as on opening track ‘Ramontana’ - ingeniously composed of genetically modified Ramones riffs - Ecstatic Sunshine smother us in goodwill, have fresh chops to share and never even skirt the borders of Annoying.

As noted by John Darnielle in his write-up of Freckle Wars (link), the production here is perhaps a little thin, and hopefully future recordings will see Ecstatic Sunshine experimenting with denser and more varied sounds, but aside from that, cracking, perfectly balanced stuff from an intriguing band who are clever and know they are and get away with it too.