CD-R, Afe Records, 2009
www.decimopianeta.com/scum/Scum.htm
When I first saw the press sheet labelling Scum From The Sun as ‘Doom Metal/Experimental/Ambient’ there was a part of me that was hoping that this would be going down the route of Sunn O))) or such like; of course when I always presume or hope for something then this usually won’t be the case, and as usual this was no different in that regard.
Over four tracks Scum From The Sun do tend to dabble more with the psychedelic than anything else; slick bass lines and hypnotic, but unchallenging drum structures for the most part give way to trippy drugged out sounding synth structures that whir and spiral on their way to some other plane of existence; and to be honest you don’t want anything over the top from the rhythm sections when dealing with this genre of music.
What I do appreciate more than anything else when listening to this self titled affair is the use of the organic alongside the synthetic, which complement themselves enough even if the music seems that touch out of date; there is definitely a lack of anything modern to this release and whilst its brilliant to give a hint to the ghosts of the past it’s always nice to give a fresh edge to the proceedings, of which in my opinion is the only thing lacking here apart from the musical abilities of say Godspeed You Black Emperor, with which of course this would sound utterly fantastic, and without those capabilities this will always sound like an also ran.
Don’t get me wrong however; there are moments on this I genuinely can latch onto, such as the sparse moments where just guitar and bass flow together with simplistic yet effective resonance; even so there just is that element of too much meandering about that fails in raising the bar for me which is a shame for what is in part an interesting release.
[6/10]
— Tony Young