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Shuteye Unison - featuring members of The Rum Diary, Built for the Sea, and The Action Design

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Shuteye Unison album reviews/press:

Shuteye Unison is the offshoot of one of my favorite Bay Area bands, The Rum Diary (this is assuming you consider the farmland north of Marin County to still be the "Bay Area", which I do).  Like their predecessor, they could be lumped into the vague genre of "Post Rock", a genre I've never really been able to describe but always know it when I hear it…I think it might have something to do with tuning or maybe how many band members wear sweaters, I'll have to get back to you on that.  Anyways, if you know the Rum Diary then you could probably correctly guess that Shuteye Unison sounds fairly reminiscent of them, but with a slightly poppier edge in a Pinback sort of way. You could also throw in some Mogwai and Helio Sequence references, if you were feeling cheeky. The Rum Diary never got the respect they deserved in my opinion – Here's to hoping Shuteye Unison is able to grab a few more hearts and minds, because the music they produce certainly warrants it. (3.5 out of 5)

 - SLAP Magazine

This is seriously good, you should pay some attention to this one. It gets off to an odd start though, with a wall of post rock guitar effects that have me reaching for the skip button. Luckily, once we get on to the songs proper, things are much improved. Quite often around this time of year, I dig out that Antarctica CDEP from several years ago, and start wondering why I can't seem to find any other bands that play that kind of spaced out, ethereal indie rock (because most bands that play that kind of thing are too obsessed with aping My Bloody Valentine to be worth listening to). Shuteye Unison nail it, dealing in long songs full of spacey guitars and effects, with drifting, smooth vocals that are amidst the mix but not drowned out or indecipherable. It is a very dreamlike sound that they have, and it suits this time of year to perfection. Damn fine EP all round here, I look forward to hearing where they go next, as I have a feeling it's going to be rather special.

 - Collective Zine UK

The recipe for a decent “post-rock” track is deceptively simple: carefully mix crashing waves of reverb-laden guitars, pounding drums, a reluctance to include lyrics to match the music, and a love for multiple, humongous crescendos in one song; then, let it set for six to seven minutes. If done correctly, out pops the perfect background music for a variety of scenarios: baby-making, burning out, and philosophical conversations come quickly to mind. Personally, I blame Sigur Ros, not because they weren’t the first to effectively combine these elements to critical acclaim, but because they were the first to bring it into the contemporary pop music consciousness. When your music can be found in the same iTunes library alongside that of Jack Johnson, you know that you’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere.

So, how does one actually craft a “post-rock” album that can be discerned from the average Explosions In The Sky wannabe act? Well, if you’re three-piece act Shuteye Unison, you accomplish this by injecting a healthy dose of pop and decent lyrics alongside those layers of guitars, bass, and drums. Their six-song, eponymous debut EP rings in at 31 minutes, giving the band ample time to set up each track’s basic dream-pop pattern before building up to the inevitable grand conclusion. The shimmering, chiming guitars and meditative passages of “Tomorrow’s Five Horizons” provides for a fine introduction to the band’s sound, and “Through Dunes,” with its ability to create the sensation of watching black storm clouds break to reveal a blue sky, is an excellent concluding bookend for the whole project’s atmosphere. While their music isn’t the most complex in their scene, Shuteye Unison is a welcome addition to a genre that’s become a bit tiresome and repetitive in output.

 - Dryvetyme Onlyne

...a great spin on atmospheric indie rock. the rhythms and hooks are tight as a freaking drum while the guitar and vocals noodles up above somewhere amongst the clouds and unicorns.
 - When We Were Younger and Better (blog)

Shuteye Unison is a new band formed by two members of the Rum Diary. Atmospheric guitars, with loud-soft dynamics and melodic bass lines will appeal to fans of Pinback, Three Mile Pilot, Mogwai, and The Police. Shuteye Unison starts where the Rum Diary left off, but with more straightforward beats, and louder guitars. A definite must for anyone into epic rock!

 - AMP Magazine

Only 6 songs here but this North Bay trio are impressive at creating dreampop soundscapes that don't come off as boring or uninspired. There's a lot more going on that the typical dreampop tune like on the sweeping, cascading "Tomorrow's Five Horizons" which swoops n' sways all the while having a solid rhythm section holding it on terra firma while "Latin Metrics' slips into a warm groove with rollicking drums and mysterious vocals courtesy of Daniel Mckenzie and "Slow Ravens" creeps along like the best Pinback tune.

 - Dagger

Shuteye Unison rose out of the burnt embers of The Rum Diary. While this act remained relatively unknown, the tricking and somewhat soothing sounds of Shuteye Unison’s new record, a self titled affair which totals in at just over thirty minutes, will surely guarantee them at least a modicum of success. Bearing in mind these links, regular readers will soon note that this isn’t the first time we have covered these young fellows. The Rum Diary were succinctly described in our Tracking the Trends series as “one of California 's more interesting bands” and having “a stunning work of art in its midst.” Kind words, but now it’s time to see whether Shuteye Unison can live up to the reputation of their previous incarnation.

Thankfully, they do not disappoint. Shuteye Unison offers similar genre swapping and splicing that was clearly favoured in The Rum Diary, but musically they have come on leaps and bounds. The compositions featured on this self-titled record are incandescent wonders. Flitting between spaced out and dreamy vocals that would make My Bloody Valentine proud, as well as darker pieces like “Fields Landing,” which features Bradford Cox vocal atmospherics over a dark American voiced sample and what can essentially be described as Texas Chainsaw Massacre noises, Shuteye Unison have clearly  increased their musical repertoire.

For those who prefer their music wholly instrumental, Shuteye Unison is not for you. However, if you can stomach someone flexing their vocal chords, this record offers a real treat for your passive ears. Moving between tribal-come-dub murmurings much in the same vein as Pocahaunted as well as a pre-occupation with primordial mutterings such as the sun, shadows and water, you cannot deny that Shuteye Unison manage to compress an awful lot into this rather short offering. The only qualm I had with the lyricism is that it did border on dreaded trite territory, such as in the aforementioned “Fields Landing” where the singer’s interest with the “party tonight” sounds like the inane mutterings of the fellow on Weezer’s “Undone - The Sweater Song” as opposed to anything truly interesting or, dare I say it, “deep”.

While Shuteye Unison do move between any genre they sit fit, opener and the final composition, “CRF030608” and “Through Dunes” feature a bubbling ambient piece which, while it isn’t in fitting with the rest of the record, is a soothing addition that adds wonders to the overall effort. All in all, while it’s a relatively short affair, Shuteye Unison’s debut has a somewhat hypnotic affect on the listener and comes strongly recommended.

 - The Silent Ballet

I wish it was autumn. That's the first thing I thought of as the new Shuteye Unison self-titled debut spun around in the Ripple CD player, it's gentle tones sparkling through the speakers. I wish it was autumn.

It's hard to explain, but something about the music, the dreamy, shimmering indie pop of Shuteye Unison just makes me think of brisk autumn days, a cool breeze lilting through the trees, rustling the leaves, stirring them to revel in their glorious tones of red, orange and gold. A simple melancholy floating through the air heralding the coming of the darker winter nights. The glistening of the first morning dew on the front lawn, a harbinger of the arrival of the imminent frost. That's Shuteye Unison.

Now, it certainly doesn't hurt that autumn is my favorite season. There's just something about nature in autumn as it prepares to sleep. The simple joys of reaching for my favorite sweater, the heat of the summer finally past. The chill in the air makes me introspective, a time for solitary walking, crunching the fallen leaves under my hiking shoes, the flip-flops and sandals safely packed away for the season. It's a time for taking stock of my life, for recharging my energies. Time to start a meditative journey. That's Shuteye Unison.

I never had the pleasure of hearing The Rum Diary, but when they went on hiatus, three of the members (Daniel McKenzie, Jon Fee and Jake Krohn) began to write and record together. Their muse inspired, Shuteye Unison was born. Self-recorded and mixed with Pall Jenkins (The Black Heart Procession, Three Mile Pilot)l, the band displays a wealth of texture and restraint. This is dreamy, glistening alt-pop, instantly accessible, shimmering in its tone and downright beautiful in its scope. An ambient, post-punk dreamscape of textures, looping bassline and sparkling guitars. It is an album of patience and quiet, of mood and intent, spiked with enough muscle to propel the songs through to the end. It is an album of infinite complexity and sublime simplicity. Starkly somber in tone, yet ultimately uplifting. Grand, yet intimate. It is contradictions within itself, yet as clear as a newborn autumn morning.

To my ear, Shuteye Unison recall some of the best hypnotic alt-pop of days gone by. The floating dreaminess of the Cocteau Twins. The vocal tone and melodies of my personal favorites The Lotus Eaters. Shades of David Sylvian. Hints of Autolux. The ambiance of the more introspective 4AD label. The album is dense, but not suffocating, a streak of light shimmering off a still pool.

Beginning with the ambient intro "Crf030608," it doesn't take long for the vision of this band to be revealed. "Tomorrow's Five Horizons," rides on a melodic bass line, a throbbing drum sequence right into the soaring guitars. The song is one seamlessly lush hook. An effortless atmospheric journey through passages of soaring beauty and lulling quiet. A warning of a future ecologic apocalypse told with a rapturous chorus and delicate harmonies. It is a stunning work of subtle beauty.

"Fields Landing," follows, a mournful, almost pre-war feeling, with the drums marching out a beat similar to a weary army trudging reluctantly through a muddy field. The melancholy synthesized tone, near bagpipe like in quality, add to this feeling, a Scottish Loch, a misty, green hill of grass. But this isn't a war song, it's a journey, a search for sanctuary. And finally, when the guitar crashes in with vigor, the song launches into its own time and place. Throughout the song, as the entire album, the hushed vocals are an instrument, adding a delicate touch of fragility, a tone, a hint, rather than a focus. The overall effect is striking.

"Latin Metrics," rides a stuttering drum beat through the shimmering guitar, creating wave after wave of hypnotizing post-rock. The drumming on "Slow Ravens," sucks me in like a kid looking down a well, dreaming and imaging what strange universes dwell inside. Moments of fury strike through the chiming guitar tones, chords of aggression, driving this song more urgently than those that came before. This is probably my favorite track, if I was forced to pick one, but in truth, the six tracks here, including the final nine-minute opus, "Through the Dunes," all act together as one unified whole, a transportation into a lush, atmospheric world. A warping of dimensions to the ambient, tuneful place that is Shuteye Unison.

I've heard that the group is already at work writing and recording their next album for the Park and Records label, an eco-friendly music venture based outside of San Francisco. If the six songs on this extended EP are any inclination of the majestic beauty that is still to come, I'll be there. Wood crackling in the fireplace, my window open to allow in the chill of the autumn night, my stereo turned up loud for the music to engulf me, and as the boys suggest, a Guiness in my hand.

Autumn. Always my favorite time of year.

 - The Ripple Effect 

This CD first caught our attention because it is on the Parks and Records label. We have made particular mention of this cool little label in the past because the folks running it seem to have the right ideas about making music as well as the world in general. Not only that, they also seem to have the right idea about what constitutes good music. Speaking of...Shuteye Unison is an interesting new band. These folks create slightly hazy melodic progressive pop/rock that sounds something like a cross between Pinback and Starflyer 59. Shuteye Unison is the trio consisting of Daniel McKenzie, Jon Fee, and Jake Krohn all of whom are also involved in other musical projects. This self-titled CD is short...lasting just over half an hour. But these six songs are extremely strong and hold up to many repeated spins. Cool, catchy, thought provoking stuff for intelligent listeners. Recommended. (Rating: 5++)
- Babysue.com

Its (Shutyeye Unison's) just-released debut is festooned with dreamy guitar and melodic bass, and hushed vocals riding coolly over the beautiful yet somewhat melancholic terrain.
- East Bay Express

The album is flexible on many levels. It's complicated enough to be dissected if you're so disposed, but can just as easily be experienced as a passive ride. It's broad and expansive, yet simultaneously intimate. It is every bit as complicated as you want it to be, yet no more so than you'd like (no matter where you choose to draw that line). Shuteye Unison is one of those rare bands that seems poised for film scoring. They capture moods without being focused on hooks or cleverness. It's not a riff, but a feeling that this album burns into your brain.
- Bob Vinyl

Post-rock has a history! Seemingly the most ahistorical of the many contemporary veins of indie rock, this stuff is now divisible into distinct eras and movements. While some groups seized upon the quiet/loud dynamics and abrasive chord structures of pioneering Kentucky band Slint, others based their sound on the jazzy exploration of Tortoise and the various Kinsella projects. Some bands bridge the gap between plodding metal and air experimentation. These guys, Shuteye Unison, are reminiscent of mid-period Mogwai, with plenty of '90s emo influence thrown in. This is a successful, seemingly effortless debut from three veteran Northwest indie rockers.

Shuteye Unison are a three-piece, and they make good use of their limited instrumentation. Chiming guitar figures and vocal counterpoints create memorable melodies, no small achievement within this style. Meanwhile the drums and bass lay down a compellingly energetic rhythmic base. There are feedback swells aplenty. Most of these songs stay fairly even, both in structure and and volume, ceding the spotlight to the very nice emo-ish vocalizing. "Fields Landing" is the exception that proves the rule -- here the noodly guitar line gives way to a series of violent syncopated hits that shatters the carefully structured groove before settling into a louder version of same.

Released via bassist Jon Fee's ecologically centered label Parks and Records, this comes packaged simply in a recycled cardboard sleeve, adorned with a simple screenprinted logo and track listing. The organic feel of the music, the sense that they were created out of some free-form jamming, is complemented by the DIY packaging, just as some of the lyrical themes are reflected in the label's mission statement. This is a compelling listen, which benefits from a completeness and attention to detail evident in both the music and the way it is present. (7.5 / 10)
- 30music.com

“Tomorrow’s Five Horizons” gloriously kicks in after the instrumental waves of the opener “Crf030608″. The song is rapturous in its scope as it brings to mind the tendencies of bands like Autolux and Silversun Pickups. The seven-minute “Fields Landing” starts off quietly with a spoken word piece once again portraying the band’s ability to create their own space and time. The song is almost post-rock in its patient approach. “Latin Metrics” and “Slow Ravens” continue where “Tomorrow’s Five Horizons” left off. The band is simply hypnotizing with the striking moods they create.
- Sound as Language

Add a little fire and water and San Francisco trio Shuteye Unison could be one of the few bands to incorporate all four elements into its being. With its debut on the new Bay Area indie label Parks and Records — which was co-founded by bassist/vocalist Jon Fee and espouses a rather grounded mission that includes recycled album packaging and contributions for environmental preservation — it certainly has the earth part down. And with soaring shoegaze melodies awash in cloudgrazing bliss, there’s enough air circulating in the band’s sound to make any listener feel like flying in euphoria.

Fee and guitarist/vocalist Daniel McKenzie conjure lush sonic soundscapes, less rooted in the post-punk percussion of their previous band, The Rum Diary (now on hiatus). With Jake Krohn (The Action Design) on drums, they craft a rather noteworthy offering of dream-pop here that bursts in classic 4AD ethereality — from the tone-setting ambient instrumental “CRF 030608” to the cinematic “Fields Landing,” which builds from a sample of backwoods film dialogue, Indian drones and lingering, Sigur Ros-like wails into a paced post-rock meditation on distortion and liberation: “Once you’re in a crash / It’s always too soon to land.”

Feedback obfuscates some lyrics with high-toned falsettos blending into the scenery and whispers and breaths becoming instruments on their own, as on “Latin Metrics” where they buoy the song’s polyrhythmic textures. When the subdued vocals peep through on epic closer “Through Dunes” — which is saturated with a My Bloody Valentine melodic glow, hollers taken from a real-life rally and noisy fuzz layers — they beckon listeners to freedom: “Lose yourself in a crowd / Before you can be found.” Barely passing the half-hour mark, Shuteye Unison’s debut culminates into an intensely gratifying listen that breezes by — before you know it, the wind flow you’ve been caught up in safely guides you to touch back down on Earth.

- West Coast Performer

Atmospheric rock can be pretty hit or miss -- all too often, the music sounds too distant to leave a lasting impression or serve as anything more than background noise. Granted, it's not easy to create something that stands out while still sounding, I dunno, aloof and spaced out. But sometimes a band comes along that does a nice job of honing in on that dynamic and creating a record that fits the bill for how good music within this genre should sound. Today, Shuteye Unison is that band and their self-titled debut is pretty enjoyable.

The segue from instrumental intro "Crf030608" into "Tomorrow's Five Horizons" is seamless. The jagged guitars utilized here remind this reviewer of something off The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me, and the vocal approach employed here is soft and soothing, complementing the aforementioned guitars nicely instead of overpowering them. The activity in the rhythm section increases in the song's last minute, with forceful pounding drums and plenty of cymbal crashes that build tension. The song ends there which is slightly disappointing, but the build-up was strong enough for it to not be a huge detractor.

"Fields Landing" is one of two opuses on the record, a seven and a half minute epic with positively haunting vocal effects, droning keyboards and a gently strummed guitar that set a rather somber tone in the song's first half. About five minutes into the song, distorted guitars kick in accompanied by heavy, crashing drums. The soft vocals sound more distant than ever here, but part of me thinks that was the point.

"Latin Metrics" and "Slow Ravens" are the next two tracks here, the former a dancy, almost Pinback-esque jam rife with interesting percussion and the latter a simpler, slower ballad that features more distorted guitars toward the end of the song to create an effective quiet/loud dynamic.

"Through Dunes" closes out this record on a high note, and despite its 9 and a half minute running time never feels too long or too forced. The vocals are once again, rather distant and echoy, creating an ambiance enhanced to near perfection by the restrained guitar tones and sporadic drumming. Over six minutes go by before heavy, low-end Hum-esque guitar and drums kick in and the juxtaposition of that and the strange background noise makes for an entertaining listen.

At six songs and 31 minutes, this release is somewhere between an EP and a full-length but regardless it never really runs out of breath before the finish line. Shuteye Unison have created something awfully ambitious and managed to make it distinct and engaging without sounding forced or contrived.

 - Punknews.org

...intricate, dreamy post-rock, much to the side of Pinback, Silversun Pickups and other such contemporaries.
 - The Deli Magazine

Shuteye Unison sound a little like The Charlatans if they signed to Deep Elm rather than going down the baggy Manchester indie route. Maybe it's me but the vocals sound a tonne like Tim Burgess. It must be me. Maybe I'm going deaf. Or I'm stupid. Anyway, this is a very atmospheric record, almost dream-like in places as the vocals whisper away in the background and the guitars, bass and drums create a hypnotic beat in the foreground. It's good, but not great - I can see why a lot of people would enjoy this but it's not taken as much of a hold on me as I'd hoped. 'Tomorrow's Five Horizons' drifts along and builds and builds and builds but never quite reaches the crescendo you'd hope for. 'Latin Metrics' is very similar as the single parts all sound fantastic and the vocals do the job they are meant to but, in my opinion, it doesn't quite hit the spot and the drift never turns into a bang. I'd just like some kind of outpouring of emotion, it's like the band are content with bottling it all up. Either that or I enjoy louder music a bit too much. Like The Appleseed Cast? I think you may enjoy these guys too. (3/5 Stars)

 - Punktastic

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