Underslung with indie pop sensibility, Tallows mingles beachfront epiphany with surf-tinged psychedelia.
The track comes courtesy of Sun Sap, a seven-piece outfit from Sydney and the south coast. By their own admission, the group weave sun-baked amalgams of surf, soul and garage rock.
Perhaps a tribute to Byron Bay’s famed surf, holiday and dog beach, the group’s second single conveys a hazy mosaic of coastal imagery and dazed introspection. Sun Sap’s breezy attitude taps into the celestial ocean of California’s east coast sound.
Sun Sap takes listeners to the back of the break with Tallows, a single dripping with tranquility and roaring, psychedelic surf rock vibes in equal parts.
There’s an ease, warmth and detached optimism to the track shared with generations of US acts, from the Beach Boys to The Growlers and their neo-psych contemporaries. With all that implies there’s also an unshakable feeling that there’s some placid power pop sitting somewhere beneath the surface.
The sliding nonchalance of the track’s acoustic and vocal introduction quickly gives way to a gentle broadside of guitar licks. The shift provides an interesting structural change. It’s perhaps this free-form approach in conjunction melodic interplay between guitar and vocal lines which gives this track its charm.
Rock music under the banner of psych can often bombard the listener in torrents of sound or the excessive noodlings of ultra-visionary space rock, but Sun Sap have taken a more tempered approach. There’s a polish and focus behind their laid back exterior.
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The seaside thematic and tumbledown slacker feel of the track is counterbalanced against its electrifying riffs. Providing a centre point of gravity to the drifting vocals and an initially laid back rhythm section, this fretwork slips from textured garage leanings to plucking surf rock build with infectious impunity.
Tallows builds in momentum before breaking into an upward swirl of psychedelic garage solos and rhythmic drive. Less a headlong launch into outer space than a lackadaisical surge, the track finishes with a billowing ascent, closing things out on an uplifting note.
Having sedated the thrashing riffs of surf and garage without losing momentum, the group weave an ambrosial coastal texture.
Tallows may trade some of the gritty heart of its garage psych forbears with the functional machinery of mellowed indie songcraft, but there’s no denying that Sun Sap melds this combination of sound into something truly idyllic.
