“Hive Burner” - Sun Araw, “The Phynx” (2007)
I’ll preface this with a warning: although this was definitely my favorite of SXSW’s “S” bands, I fully expect that most people who listen to this will hate it. “Hive Burner” is not at all my usual style, but for some odd reason I really love listening to it. It’s basically seven minutes of psychedelic industrial noise, with no identifiable melody or structure or anything like that. Dusted Magazine compared it to “a mysterious relic from a primitive tribe some years in our future” and that sounds about right to me. I’m curious if anyone besides me will like this. But regardless, one of the great things about SXSW (and this little project of mine) is its capability to expose you to new kinds of music, and this clearly fits the bill.
By the way, if you go to Sun Araw’s site (linked at the top), there are two other mp3s available for download (“Harken Sawshine” and “Horse Steppin’”), both of which are good and appreciably more song-like than “Hive Burner”.
