Music
Press
Cool Rainbows is the project of Djeisan Suskov, who used to front Trees Climbing Trees. Evidently, he’s been wondrously faffing about in the studio for what seems a mighty long time to finally unleash this record on Lil’ Chief Records.
Opening with the single Southern Summer Sun, something that, perhaps there is some irony in not being that prevalent this year. The opening bars sounding a little like an imagined clockwork toy train approaching the crest of a gentle incline – slowly, but surely like a some beautiful monolith the song sets the gentle but giant tone of the album; as it manages to somehow simultaneously both chug and float.
Psychedelic pop melodies weave in a heavy mist through songs like Let’s Just Be Together (fans of Tree’s will recognize some progressions of motifs here, I feel) and the hippie-hypnotic sounding Reality And A Clue which has one of the most gorgeous hooks I’ve heard in a long time.
Tidal Wave clears the deep waters created in Neverending War and Fake Tattoos – but only to create some more disconcerting spaces in tracks like 100 Voices and Forty-Two; and Pauly, while initially feeling like a simple strum soon becomes something quite gloriously uncomfortable and wonderfully awkward. The album closes with it’s title track which seemingly brings together all before it into one giant mammal of a song.
What strikes me most about Whale Rocket is the gentle but deliberate crafting of these songs; I love how the initial surface messiness begins to unravel it’s mysteries around you if you allow yourself to sit in it for long enough; connecting the moments to build a record that is much more than satisfying. - Cheese On Toast
Discography
Whale Rocket
CD/LP/Digital - 11 track album
Release date (NZ): March 19, 2012
Photos
Bio
Main songwriter, Djeisan Suskov, has had music in the background of his life since he was a child. When he was nine years old, his father started Revolver Studios and by the age of thirteen, he was helping out around the studio - whether that meant running leads or cleaning up the left-behind drug paraphernalia from the studio. Djeisan gradually picked up the basics of engineering by osmosis. When he came to forming his own band, Djeisan directed his youthful energy into post- punk music (with Nova Echo, which evolved into Cut Off Your Hands), art-rock (Robot Tigers), and then indie rock (with Trees Climbing Trees). However, he gradually found himself moving away from the sound that each of these bands made and headed back to the studio to find a different path for his music. He decided he would take his songs further in the studio, before trying to transfer them to a band format.
The first offering from this batch of songs was the radio single, “Southern Summer Sun,” which enjoyed high rotation on the b-net stations during early 2010. Despite having access to the high- end gear at Revolver Studios, Djeisan found himself more comfortable with starting the recording of his tracks at home on his lap-top. Once he had established the basic parts, he brought in other musicians such as Cass Mitchell on bass and various drummers, including Alex Freer (Artisan Guns), Paul Roper (Mint Chicks), and Jonathan Bree (The Brunettes).
The resulting album has the depth of sound that you would expect from someone who has grown up in a studio. He took as a part inspiration some of the late-period work of John Cale (such as the album, Homosapien) and a general love of 60s psychedelic music. Yet the instrumentation also draws from other music from the last forty years of popular music - as on “100 voices”, where synth lines drift in-and-out and the melody of vocals are brought forward in the mix, almost giving it the feel of a song by the Psychedelic Furs/ Chills. The subject matter draws from everyday life seen from a skewed perspective - “Whale Rocket” was inspired by a day of cloud-watching and “Reality” discusses the troubles of coming down from a bad drug experience. Even when the songs touch on love, the perspective is fresh - “Fake Tattoos” shows the enjoyment of a relationship can fade as fast as the fun of a fake tattoo, while “Pauly” gives bromance advice to a friend with a girlfriend problems.
In order to bring these songs to the live stage, Djeisan has enlisted Cass Mitchell (bass) and Alex Freer (drums) to form his core band (with other musicians added when required).
Links
