Track of the Day: Dusty, Dazey, Southwest Blues

Sound Sweet Sound, what sound might that be? It’s a benign band name as far as they go and could signal pretty much any sort of sound, but no matter what they called themselves, not much can prepare you for their epic, acid western track “Up to You,” which sounds straight from the Tex-Mex border regions, but SSS actually hails from Toulouse. And I just love it when that happens . . . 

I don’t know about you, but it gives me a weird excitement to hear a certain regional sound transplanted into a completely unrelated context and locale. It’s sort of like knowing that your message-in-a-bottle landed on Mars, and has been picked up and revered. It’s hearing cultural cross-pollination in action, and imagining what’s going to sprout from that interaction–given a few generations, what exactly will Toulousian blues-psych sound like? Sound Sweet Sound will undoubtedly go down in that fascinating, far-flung history.

Their track “Up to You” simply has so much going on for it: a David Lynch style of instrumentation, fat buzzy tones on a blank, back, reverb-y backdrop, so the waves of sound just ooze on and on to the horizon. It builds into something thunderous, a clash of twang and the beautifully apocalyptic vocals of Aniela Bastide, who sounds like a miraculous cross between Portishead’s Beth Gibbons and Alison Mosshart of the Kills. And yes, that combination is every bit as exciting as it sounds.