Temples first seized and cemented my attention when I saw
them at Camden’s Electric Ballroom last November. I was prompted to see them by
the brilliant, retro, Revolver-esque ‘Shelter Song’ that, for me, was
undeniably the most memorable song of 2012. ‘Colours To Life’ also stimulated a
rush of excitement and anticipation for an album, which would completely defy
the populist, humdrum, talentless music industry that phrenic music lovers
repel today. Following the recent
unveiling of ‘Sun Structures’, some may accuse Temples of being derivative or
simply a by-product of albums such as The Beatles ‘Revolver’, or ‘Strange Days’
by The Doors. Temples are hardly the
avant-garde archetype and ‘Sun Structures’ may not be particularly
revolutionary, but it’s certainly refreshing.
‘Sun Structures’ opens with Shelter Song, which immediately
sets the tone for a hallucegnic journey down, what Temples have a labelled themselves
as, a ‘neo-psych’ path. The use of vintage equipment to encapture the sound and
spirit of the psychedelic scene of the 60s is perpetual in what is a strong
opening track. However, the album isn’t just a nostalgic trip to 1969, it
encapsulates the evolution of psychedelia, from The Beatles, to Pink Floyd and
The Flaming Lips, and puts a modern spin on it, with electric synths often
creeping in. ‘The Golden Throne’ combines orchestral 60s pop with heavy with
fuzz-pedal guitar riffs, which is more innovative than Temples critics would proclaim.
The album’s highlight is unquestionably ‘Move With The Season’, a stunning,
dazed, rush of intricately crafted melodic riffs. It avoids the pitfall that
many psychedelic bands fall into by filling an album with distorted guitar, to
the point where it becomes tiresome and all sense of melody evaporates with
little substance left behind.
It’s extraordinary that this is Temples debut album. The
mastery demonstrated in ‘Sun Structures’ would fool the listener to believing
that this was their third or fourth. ‘The Guesser’ resembles a track that could
appear on a Tarantino film, with heavy emphasis on the percussion side and
hypnotic acid-soaked riffs. ‘Sand Dance’ magnifies the incurable hippy nature
of the band, resembling some sort of ancient Egyptian ritual, and certainly
something that would send a crowd at Woodstock into a hippy frenzy. The album ends with ‘Fragment’s Light’ a
dreamy, ritualistic two minute track (the shortest track on the album) with no
heavy drums propelling the track, but the soft acoustic melody and dazed and
suffused vocals carries the track by itself.
So far the album has divided both fans and the critics.
However, as an album it embeds all the best elements of psychedelic rock whilst
paying extra attention to sweeping, anthemic melodies. Whether you find this
‘ground-breaking’ or not, it’s an album which will keep the cogs in the
psychedelic machine moving through 2014. Yes, the lyrics are hardly going to
evoke emotions, or experiences that we can directly relate to, such as bands
like The Smiths cultivated in their ingenious lyrics. However, this is an album
that pursues escape from the dreary norms of everyday life, and everyday
experiences. It thrusts you into a different world, a world of utopian day
dreams and psychedelic euphoria. A desirable hide away from the incredibly
tedious, superficial and aesthetic music scene which propels the talentless
into stardom and success. Whilst this album will probably not be greeted with
massive commercial success, it will appear in all of the music connoisseur’s
beloved vinyl collection, as this is an album made to be played on a turntable.
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