Sun Dial Return Journey
9 / 10
Sun Dial Return Journey rips it up on this mind blowing album filled with rich guitar leads and rocking rhythms. Return Journey is essential in the history of underground psychedelic rock music!
Sun Dial Return Journey sounds contemporary with thick fuzz tones, distorted riffs and 90’s influences, however it is a rare vintage piece of psychedelic rock history. Recorded in the early 1990 it was ultimately shelved by the original label and later self-released. This rare album reissued on Sultatron Records in Germany Early April 2019 on 180 gram clear vinyl with the original artwork, original recordings, original mix and master limited to 500 copies! Will you choose wisely?
Sun Dial is a UK Psychedelic Rock band founded in the 1990’s by Gary Ramon a multi-instrumentalist who runs Acme-Records and is in several other projects including Quad.
Sun Dial is a true record collectors fantasy the original version of this album was never properly released until self-released through Acme-Records in 1993 after being dropped by another label. Several of these songs have come out on compilations over the years but until now the full recording in high quality audio has never been available except for the very few copies from the original press in 1993.
The music on Return Journey is awesome! The lead guitar solos have sustained tension, varied space rock tonality and burn hot as fire; “Sun Stroke Mind Train” is a great example clocking in at 14 minutes. The music has sparse vocals which have shoegaze styled presence giving more texture to the albums endlessly distorted and modulated riffs. At times the vocals are pointing toward Jesus and Mary Chain but never as mellow as Slow Dive.
The album plays as a whole with each song feeling connected to a larger theme. The truth is the music holds up as an honored rare vintage relic or as a new contemporary release that finds commonality to other new releases of today.
Sun Dial is and was ahead of the curve for noisy guitar-driven psychedelic rock and are an essential part of the global underground psychedelic rock scene in the 1990’s. this music was highly influential on mainstream indie music and kept the flame of psychedelic rock alive to emerge today in it’s most developed and diverse form ever.
The early 1990’s built the foundation for the modern psychedelic rock movement perhaps more than the originators from the 1960’s. Bands like Vibravoid, Jesus and Mary Chain, The Janitors, Sleep, and Slow Dive are other examples of awesome psych from the 1990’s.
These pioneers were willing to take psychedelic rock into noisy fuzzy places that the 1960’s would never have imagined possible due to technological limitations. This music on Return Journey is more relevant than ever because bands are finding 90’s influences and bringing them into the psychedelic fold, however, the authentic 90’s psychedelic music is slowly being reissued and reintroduced to new generations. Sun Dial is the age old tale of an innovative, interesting, psychedelic band finding their greatest popularity 20 years or more after the initial release date. Apparently psychedelic music ages like a fine guitar.
Sun Dial Return Journey
https://www.sulatron.com to buy!
Thank you so much and yes we do all need psychedelic rock acid folk music in 2021 we need more hippies in our world. Peace n love brother.
Very informative!!! Thanks my friend, can’t wait wait until the next one!!! Much love from dmtworld.net!!!