Everyone has a band in their life that takes them to a certain place. It’s hard to comprehend, particular in a world that moves so fast. But over the last decade, SUSS are mine, and it’s because their world doesn’t.
The New York trio of Bob Holmes (Rubber Rodeo), Jonathan Gregg (The Linemen, Jonathan Gregg & The Lonesome Debonaires), and Pat Irwin (B-52s, Raybeats, 8 Eyed Spy) have an uncanny way of unlocking certain parts of the soul. For me, their music instils a deep longing for the past; namely, my hometown in the backwaters of rural Australia. From the smell and the prairie hum where you can actually hear yourself think, to the chorus of birds and the environment, SUSS’ languid compositions encompass all of this.
Since the radiant, repetitious noodling of their 2018 debut, Ghost Box, SUSS have moved at their own graceful pace. And while 2024’s Birds & Beasts was arguably their most political release to date, Counting Sunsets has its own heavy weather. Unlike anything in their canon, it feels like the logical conclusion to ambient-country.
Led by the artwork, Counting Sunsets is like a mosaic you could envisage adorning the walls of The Great Northern Hotel on Twin Peaks. Its colours and finish, akin to a Bob Ross painting. That age of innocence where time had no currency.
While each piece on Counting Sunsets is in title sequence, this doesn’t shake out as one long-form composition. Each piece has its own code, beginning with Sunset I, where Holmes’ strings sparkle. And as pedal steel rises like cigarette smoke, it’s SUSS framed in slow motion. On Sunset II and Sunset IV, the band incorporate ideas from their excellent collaboration with Immersion on last year’s Nanocluster, Vol. 3. Irwin’s synths, the genesis to both pieces.
SUSS - Counting SunsetsOn Sunset III, SUSS swiftly slide back into old habits. A majestic dreamscape as the trio submit to open space. The meticulous explorations of the inner grains of sound, exposing the same emotional power as Mark Nelson did on Pan American’s Fly the Ocean in a Silver Plane. Listening to both releases, it’s evident that Nelson and SUSS have slowly become kindred spirits during this decade.
Elsewhere, and Sunset VI and Sunset VIII are shaped for a film score, which is where SUSS creep closer to than ever before. Multi-layered bliss designed to transport you to a different world. Sunset VII maintains a similar vibe, stretching the trio’s sound world beyond the borderless landscapes that have inspired them. These moments, essentially the crystallisation of ambient-country.
With Holmes’ gently picked guitars and Gregg’s hazy pedal steel, on the gorgeous IX, SUSS emit the kind of soft colours that are the backdrop to the perfect dream. It’s the movement, or lack thereof. SUSS are never in a rush to be somewhere other than in your life.
Which is fitting as the trio end with X. Irwin’s gentle piano and Holmes’ acoustic brushes, somewhere between neon Americana and, indeed, the perfect sunset. It’s these illuminating moments that most bands could only wish to end their tenure on. Whether that’s their intention on Counting Sunsets or not, through the miasma of minimalism and melody, SUSS manage to form a panoramic view of a world that, even despite its misery, still feels a little more comforting knowing they are still in it.
Counting Sunsets is out via Northern Spy. Purchase from Bandcamp.
