Birds And Beasts

SUSS play ambient country/ ambient Americana, the sound of dusk falling over wide open spaces, roads disappearing into the horizon, dreams of the American west and all that kind of imagery. The SUSS trio are actually from New York, so their cosmic America is in reality as much an urban vision as a rural one. Their latest album, Birds And Beasts, is another beauty following in the tyre tracks of several previous ones. I got on board with Promise, an album released in December 2020 when things were pretty bleak, one lockdown gone, various waves of Covid compounded by government fiascos leading to a second lockdown incoming- the winter lockdown felt very different from the spring and summer 2020 one - and SUSS's ambient music was part of the soundtrack of that time, a hideaway from the world. The band say that this album is no less connected to world events, an articulation musically of the fragility of the natural world and the lack of balance in it- both birds and beasts abound. One of the tracks- Migration- features the late Gary Leib, SUSS's synth player who died suddenly in 2021. The rest were written and recorded for the album. The dominant instrument is the pedal steel guitar, often over a wash of synths and drones, various other guitars and loops creating a widescreen, emotive soundscape. It's frequently very moving, perfect music for sitting alone with late at night. Beasts is the second longest track on the album, a ten minute minor epic in no hurry at all to get wherever its going.

The album is available to download from Bandcamp and on yellow and pink vinyl elsewhere. The pedal steel guitar has a long tail in ambient music, most obviously in Brian Eno's Apollo and The KLF's Chill Out. SUSS have placed it back at the centre again, along with fellow travellers in the cosmic Americana/ ambient country sphere, Nashville Ambient Ensemble and Luke Schneider. This is a three minute track from their EP High Line- B- sides from 2020, psychedelia, ambient, loops, e- bow guitar and pedal steel, a low key, mini- symphony. 

We Pointed Them North