Sunday Driver – Time Machine (Trapped Animal)
Sunday Driver release their latest ‘spaghetti Eastern’ single Time Machine, ahead of a new album due on Trapped Animal Records.
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Artist: Sunday Driver
Track: Time Machine
Label: Trapped Animal
Released: 24 July 2020
Find it: Bandcamp | Spotify
For those in the know 7-piece Sunday Driver fuse British folk with traditional Indian rhythms and on latest single Time Machine their experimentation has them weave melody around rounded rhythms. The first track to be taken from their forthcoming album Sun God explores space and time and fits in as the climax in a wider story about two South Indian housewives who run away and rob a bank, but it ends up going wrong.
With a hypnotic vocal and a punchy, rounded rhythm the song takes in several movements all with depth and lightness from the various instrumentation. It all sways close to Kylie Minogue’s Confide In Me melodically at times, but where that was all studio sheen this is wonderfully organic and warm sounding. There’s added interest from break-out passages but like any great pop song it’s brilliantly catchy and will soft-shoeing around your brain for hours after just one listen.
‘Of human hearts and wild bird flight / Of haunting notes that fill the night’
Talking about the way the track came about lead singer Chandy Nath says “The music came before the lyrics – the melodies and instrumental ideas had been kicking around in the band for years., and the way the song jumps around has always evoked movement and scene-shifting for me. One day I found a set of HG Wells novels in a charity shop, picked up the Time Machine and realised that was what the song was meant to be about!”
Returning to the wider story told through the album Nath continues, “The Time Machine provides them with a quick getaway – they end up in North America during the gold rush and make a fortune. It’s a sort of Thelma and Louise, but with a secret stash of chilli powder to spice up things up along the way. The album is a sort of classic ‘Spaghetti Eastern’ and this is the climax.”
Find Sunday Driver: Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | Bandcamp
- Follow our New Music 2020 playlist for a weekly update of fresh releases.
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Sarah Lay
A long-standing music journalist she's also co-founder of independent record label Reckless Yes, an author of novels, and when not messing around with words and music, a digital strategist.
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