Entrancing rhythmelodic scapes beamed from Western Australia to your ears via Glasgow's excellent Sacred Summits - the label run by Lindsay Todd (House of Traps) and Stuart Leith (Emotional Rescue)
'Eucalyptus' is the first release by Murray Collier (Dip Friso, Grim Lusk) as Sunny Balm since re-locating from Glasgow, Scotland to Manudurah, in the traditional lands of the Whadjuk people of the Nyoongar nation, out near what is also known as Perth. Rustling up a mixture of hand-played percussion, drum machines, synths, balafon, agogo, and field recordings, the album comprises mostly work made in the years before he moved to Oz, but it was all finished and wrapped up within proximity of the Indian Ocean, and as such is blessed with a warm presence clearly inspired by his current environment and spiritual location.
As with his previous releases for Optimo, the 10 tracks are all driven by strong rhythmic urges, leading him on a dance between sloshing, woozy downbeats, sloshing polyrhythms and hypnotic percussive harmonics akin to Indonesian gamelan. All the front the groove is diffracted between seven more succinct parts that naturally flow in and out of each another, whereas the B-side finds him fully dilated and open to more tonal expression, sashaying from the gentle synth strokes and Hosono-like lilt of 'At The Water Margin' to the very Eno/Byrne-esque drift of 'What's Happening World?' and ultimately a sort of frazzled, imaginary tribal-punk take on Reichian minimalism in 'Din of the Mill'.
Tracklist:
01. Sunny Balm - Eucalypt (3:34)
02. Sunny Balm - Septugenarian Dugong (0:41)
03. Sunny Balm - Bad Sleep Well (1:12)
04. Sunny Balm - Blasted Health (1:52)
05. Sunny Balm - A Mobile Nature (6:27)
06. Sunny Balm - Bardo (1:51)
07. Sunny Balm - Memorial Beam (4:29)
08. Sunny Balm - At The Water Margin (4:19)
09. Sunny Balm - What's Happening World? (8:31)
10. Sunny Balm - Din Of The Mill (7:54)
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