Best of Year 2019
Sunny Balm is Murray Collier, an artist we first encountered as one half of the sadly short-lived Pussy Mothers. Well, the good news is he's back and has taken the subtle polyrhythms that partially shaped PM's minimal output and turned them right up to 11. Eucalypt suggests Collier has spent his time between projects feasting on Francis Bebey and Jon Hassell records, aligning their spiritually-inclined fourth world vision with his DIY instincts. The result is a dreamy headspinner, that moves between short form sketches that tantalise with their brevity, and longer, more immersive pieces that use gamelan rhythms while also recalling Terry Riley's In C and a Steve Reich-like ability to shape entrancing percussive structures. All that said, the near-seamless flow between tracks most clearly brought to mind Organic Music Society, and that feeling of being lost within the space of a record, never sure at what point you're exactly at. Late contender for debut of the year.
