By It’s our Bandcamp Pick of the Week, with a sequel pick of sorts coming in the form of extra songs from ML Buch entitled SUNTUB EXTRAS!
ML Buch – SUNTUB EXTRAS
Genre: Dream Pop, Art Pop, Neo-Psychedelia
Favorite Tracks: “Sway walking,” “Growing eyes, Blade of cloud, Rolling chill,” “Halfdark, Slow blinking”
A few years ago, I reviewed ML Buch’s breakthrough second record, SUNTUB. It’s still as lustrous as when it was freshly released. Her celestial twist on the electric guitar and new wave made for an arresting exploration of synthetic pop that made rock sound futuristic again. It’s a landmark record in multiple ways. SUNTUB directed many international ears to Copenhagen’s flowering art-pop scene, which may not be so unassuming anymore. A few months later, American guitar virtuoso Mk.gee released his singular reinvention of pop-rock, TWO STAR & THE DREAM POLICE. While they operate on two different continents, they have helped fascinating guitar pop re-enter the mainstream.
SUNTUB EXTRAS fits into the picture as a glimpse of Buch’s process. Initially released as loosies on the album’s first anniversary, they now stand as an official addendum. These six instrumental sketches are bite-sized snippets of where Buch would eventually take her songs. The gentle, reverberating gallop of “Sway walking” resembles that in “Flames shards goo,” while the passive drum machine driving “Moving Light, Change” seems like a primordial take on “Somewhere” without the glistening frills that round out the finished tune.
It’s the guitar noodling we’re privy to that’s most interesting. The title “Growing eyes, Blade of cloud, Rolling chill” reads like a Pinterest board of SUNTUB’s germinating aesthetics, while the track’s twinkling guitar timbre captures Buch searching for the album’s auditory blueprint in real time. The same happens in a couple of other tracks, “Opener” and “Halfdark, Slow blinking,” yet both carry an ominous quality absent from the final record—the former’s screeching feedback, more at home in drone metal, and the latter borders on slowcore. Not every experiment makes it to completion, obviously, but it’s definitely nice to have some curiosity quelled about SUNTUB’s genesis. With these outtakes properly released, Buch has given them the same respect as her finished record. You can listen to them on Bandcamp.
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