Sunkings – Before We Die

Sunkings make a visit to Chill Tribe Records! After more than a decade they're back with full force. Striking, to say the least, Taz Alexander, the vocalist from our beloved Juno Reactor guides this album from start to finish through groovy, dubby electronica. Even tribal influences, together with her voice, makes for clear resemblances to the before mentioned group of musicians. Just listen to track #2 - "Mad Love"! Through Sunkings, Ben Watkins in Juno Reactor discovered Taz and brought her on board. This album carries that talent with extreme care. One of the reasons for that is the way the music is almost catered to the vocals of Taz, which makes the experience extremely rewarding. I dare say this is an outstanding album. The sheer quality of production and mastering makes for something out of the ordinary. I've recently taken a great interest in Dub music, and that makes it all the more exciting to have that collection diversified with Sunkings new album. Now, there is a more electronic / new wave touch as the tracks progress, and I can only imagine how seeing them live would be a great experience. The electronic parts makes for a really great contrast to the more ambient tracks. This shift between ambient / dub / electronic style caters to many different tastes, but what they have in common is a thoroughly presented theme that rings through the whole playlist. It is very exciting when hearing through an album the first few times, and each time confirming your suspicion that there really is a deeper edge to the tracks you're listening to. British electronica / dub is hard, if not impossible to overdo, as all the big names out there can confirm, and in my book, Sunkings takes a solid spot up there with the rest of them. This loungy, British touch to the tracks presented to us makes for a really good vibe. This is a diverse, extremely well produced album. The tracks are well chosen to bring the experience to different peaks as the hour flies by, and the real feat of ingenuity lies in the way Taz' voice has been sampled both as lead vocal but also as really eerie pads to lay a foundation for much of the theme of the album. There also a great obscure part to the experience that is “Before We Die”. The artwork and scribblings inside the digipak makes for an interesting touch. You really get the feeling of receiving a complete story with this album, something every artist tries to accomplish. Fans of Juno Reactor will surely recognize the genius of this, as fans of ambient, electronic and dub. Chill Tribe Records has yet again released a superb piece of music. This is highly recommended.