Review: Sunset Diver, "SD" (Patient Sounds, 2017)

A friend recently asked me to characterize my taste in music. I didn't have to think too long: "Repetitive, but not boring." As I type this now, it still rings true, on an aesthetic and on a political level; I could listen to Steve Reich or William Basinski records all day long, but I had vague, nonetheless violent fantasies at a certain point this mandatory "grow the economy" season after the 10th or so take on "Santa Baby." To stress a belabored point, guns DO kill people, and so do, slowly, bad sounds ad nauseum.

Good sounds are a different breed, however. Julia Bloop, a.k.a. (or is it f.k.a.?) Sunset Diver, knows about these, and about repetition. Sunset Diver's 2017 "SD", out on Patient Sounds (ohboy whatta label!), reinforces this. "Sailing" opens things with a two-chord guitar loop, vaguely punched through with two loping single note lines and something like the creaking of a boat or a smatter of waves. Of course, the name of the song and project could be suggestive; throughout, evocative yet ambiguous crunches and clusters give texture to things. 'Cabiria' is a slow fog of whispered amorous correspondence from the bottom of the ocean. On side B, 'Pavlava' gives us a strikingly poignant piano melody held aloft by wind chimes and jovial but ominous laughter.

These songs emerge fully formed, all the more strong for their distance, for the most part, from anything resembling a con-ventional drum part, bass line, etc. The force of Sunset Diver's choices and their curation together is all that's needed.