A group of students, formed in Berlin in 2011, blend together their impeccably hip music tastes, happening upon a sound that’s been labelled ‘krautgaze’, albeit largely by online audio platforms.
Influences, then, come from the 70s krautrock and 80s shoegaze scenes, but there’s a kaleidoscope of patterns fashioned out of post-punk, psych-pop, space rock and new wave shapes, with traces of Bowie, Velvets, The Cure, Pink Floyd and Hawkwind audible through a filter of arthouse indie jingle-jangle.
As Suns Of Thyme evidently worship so many youth-cultural sounds of the past, Cascades can’t help ending up in the retro-rock junk shop, haggling for vintage pedals with Finnish stoners in Afghan coats, even if their reference points span broader than most. While not many of these 54 minutes are hugely memorable or wildly exciting – and it may seem a little ordinary compared to the bands they love – there’s a hazy compulsiveness about their interplay, with bass, drums, guitars and synths bouncing off each other in a warm chemical shimmer.
