UNTIL SUNRISE

Until Sunrise is a young US post band whose first self-titled album was released in 2010, but the one I am reviewing now is the re-release with the alternate name of "Oxide Tones", here it features ten compositions that make a total time of 75 minutes, so yeah, it is a long album. The music here is post rock in its soft, mellow side, with instrumental tracks that create beautiful atmospheres, calm passages and peaceful moments.

The first song is entitled "Sunset", and since this piece I could say Until Sunrise shows us their style and musical tendency; the music starts softly but then it flows and little by little becomes more intense, creating that inherent emotional sound in post rock acts. "Pink" is one of the longer tracks of the album, reaching the ten minutes. The first moments are calm, smooth and relaxing, later it progresses and more elements can be heard, however the music in my point of view never reaches a climax, never explodes, in spite of that weird guitar riff after four minutes. So despite it is a good composition, I expected a moment of seduction, a nucleus, and it may has it, but I simply did not find it.

"Midnight" starts with drums, later bass, guitars and the atmospheric synth join and create a nice and mellow track. It later takes us to "Insomnia" which has a kind of funky guitar that creates a funky post rock sound. Before reaching two minutes the music becomes a bit crazy, they change the direction and try to experiment, but in my honest opinion, the result fails because it does not attract me at all. Anyway is a nice try, it is always good to experiment, not all people dare to do it, but well, sorry guys I did not like this particular track, though its second half is much better.

Until Sunrise surprises us with a challenging 23-minute song in their debut album, something that has to be applauded just for the fact they were capable to compose it. The name is "As the City Quietly Sleeps" and it really starts as softly as if people were sleeping or getting relaxed, that's the good news, the bad news is that all of a sudden after three minutes they wanted to wake up everybody and make a drastic change into a much heavier sound, which is out of place in my opinion. Later it becomes rockier, not that heavier, but the experimentation does not seem to end because they create mini-songs in this whole track, I mean, we can appreciate different passages, some of them are pretty cool, some others aren't, the heavier ones in particular, which actually sound really amateurish and as I said, out of place.

"A Maudlin Interlude" is one of the shortest compositions, with two and a half minutes of acoustic guitar, delicate percussion, some piano notes and a complementary harmonica, sweet. "Sunrise" is a nice track that starts with a dark atmosphere that later is becoming lighter. Here we can listen to a combination of both, acoustic and electric guitar, accompanied by drums and bass, as usual. The acoustic feeling continues until the song finishes, but also continues in the next track entitled "First Signs of Summer" which happens to be the shortest of the whole album. This three-song part of the record seems to be contrast with what the band offered in the previous tracks, which is not bad at all, but it is also an indication that they are trying to find out their own identity, their own sound.

The album finishes with "Nostalgic Moment" and "Another Nostalgic Moment", two songs that judging by the title may perfectly work together. The music is mellow, relaxing and beautiful mainly due to the piano; later it becomes a bit heavier and more emotional, but here it perfectly flows, it is not forced like previous tracks. In the second nostalgic moment I can listen a better quality mainly in the bass, though the music is practically the same, they could have made a 14 minute track instead of these two, but anyway, I believe this is my favorite part of the album.

I cannot deny the trio has talent, these guys are working hard and one really appreciates that, however, I invite them to work even harder because I am sure they have more to learn offer in the near future. This album shows the first steps, but now I expect their upcoming productions with surely more mature stuff. My final grade will be 2.75 rounded to three.

Enjoy it!

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