I've been a fan of Sugar Horse for a while now but it really feels like something fundamental has changed with the group over the last few years, for the better. Although maybe "changed" is not the right way to put it but rather "come to fruition". It's not like The Grand Scheme of Things and now Not A Sound In Heave have brought something necessarily new to the band's song; the core is still made up of eclectic experimentation arrayed around a core of doom and shoegaze. But both releases have fine tuned the formula to bring forth the tension between Sugar Horse beautifully fragile moments of flood lights, bittersweet regret, and often overwhelming catharsis, and near-industrial levels of heaviness and impact. Not A Sound In Heaven further solidifies this approach by zeroing in on the latter, heavier part of the Sugar Horse sound while still leaving space for the delicate crescendos that keep me coming back to Sugar Horse like a moth crashing into a lamp.
When you press play the emphasis on the heavier side of things while almost immediately make itself apparent. "Fire Graphics" could easily feel at home on a HEALTH album, all new-fangled edges of industrial-clad chords. The thumping beat of the track's outro, alongside the brighter ambience that plays after it, are like the wings of a bird, foreshadowing the raptor flying overhead. The former returns across the album, whether it be immediately after on the sleek, hefty main riff of "Secret Speech" or on the bass-laden presence of "Company Town", the album's sixth track. There's an edge here that previous Sugar Horse releases certainly had but never had this much. It makes Not A Sound In Heaven sound like by far the heaviest Sugar Horse release, even if that's not necessarily true (depending on how you define heaviness).
And then there's the other of the equation, the beautifully explosive, fragile, and touching ambience. I still remember the first time I heard "Space Tourist", the closing track of The Grand Scheme of Things. I still remember the first time that wall of sound which seems to never end hit me. And I will always remember the first time I heard "History's Biggest T-Shirts" from Not A Sound In Heaven. I don't really know how to describe what these tracks make me feel. Grandeur, elation, surrender, deep sadness, uncontainable hope, wonder, ennui, joy. And so much more. I've heard some stuff like it before, on things like Ulver releases, especially their collaboration with Sunn O))). But I've never heard it done quite like this, so bright, expansive, and overwhelming. I sort of knew that a track like this as coming when I first heard the album but it still hit me like a truck.
There's plenty more to enjoy on Not A Sound In Heaven because, as usual, Sugar Horse are not content with just one or two things. They must do all of the things. But, also as usual, there's incredible cohesiveness to the album, hardwired to that thumping, industrial, heavy riff that seems to shudder throughout it. Like basically every new Sugar Horse release of the last few years, Not A Sound In Heaven has become my favorite work by them. Check it out for me, why don't you? It's out today.
Tom Colquhoun