The Suncharms are not new to With Just A Hint Of Mayhem, we have previously reviewed two of their excellent tracks “Red Dust” (2018) and “Monster Club” (2019). They have a new track out now called “3 Billion Heartbeats” available on a great compilation, ‘Shiny Happy Fanzine 04 – Please Rain Fall Compilation’ from Shiny Happy Records. Click here to check the compilation out and if you can afford it maybe purchase the whole thing or some of the tracks at least. As well as the Suncharms there are some brilliant other acts and songs here. My particular favourites are the quirky cover of Nick Lowe’s “Cruel To Be Kind” by Fernando Torres (the band not the former Liverpool striker), “Rockin’ To The Beat” by the Perfect English Weather (this on has a St Etienne feel about it) and Well Whales’ “She’s A Punk” among many, many other fine tunes, nineteen in all.
Suncharms contribution is a classy chilled, languid, laconic tune with a great summer feel about it. This band is often referred to as shoegaze in style, but they operate far more widely than that one genre would allow. I believe the lyrics refer to the average number of heartbeats that a human heart will make in an 80-year lifespan. If I live that long then I will have just under 700 million left. Every time I hear a new Suncharms track I feel happy and I also feel that they get better with each release. I am looking forward even more now to their album and to finally get to see them play live once we are through these strange COVID-19 days.
The Suncharms also feature on a split tape (yes cassettes are back) release with Mirrorlakes, also from Shiny Happy Records. Click here to check it out. Each band has three tracks. The first from Suncharms is the aforementioned “Monster Club”, click here to read my review of that one from last year. They also contribute the dreamy, trippy “Cosmonaut” which features guitar lines that Johnny Marr would be proud of. Their third and final track on the tape is an acoustic version of “Reflection” which really showcases just how good the band’s songs are even when stripped back to acoustic guitars and vocals. Mirrorlakes from Jakarta, Indonesia are described as a slowcore band and I certainly get a feel of Galaxie 500 and the RedHouse Painters in their first track on this collection “Three Song”. Meanwhile “Kosong” has a much more acoustic, unplugged feel to it and is the kind of tune that I can imagine listening to while lounging in the sun sipping a cold beer. Mirrorlakes final track “Untitle” makes me think of some of Graham Coxon’s less punky tracks.
So check out the ‘Shiny Happy Fanzine 04 – Please Rain Fall Compilation’ and the Suncharms/ Mirrorlakes Split Tape, both are also available digitally. You will not be disappointed!
https://shinyhappyrecs.bandcamp.com/track/the-suncharms-3-billion-heartbeats
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