After Suuns’ latest effort, Hold/Still, was launched back in April of this year it has shunned all other competitors in my mind and become my favourite LP of the year. Their unnerving mix of minimal electronica, industrial-rock and trip-hop makes for a paranoid and intimidating darkness in their music. It was not enough to hear this just on record, I was keen to see how they would personify the mood in a live setting. In the past when I have caught Suuns touring their 2013 release, Images du Futur, their sound was more rooted in post-rock atmospherics. Now, with their seismic shift towards stomach-churning bass and macabre electronics, Patterns was finally proven to be a fitting venue.

Patterns is renowned for being a venue that is well-suited for electronics and synthesised rhythms. In the past their guitar-orientated shows have occasionally slumped due to how the room is not necessarily a fitting shape for that sound. Suuns are now a band drinking from more electronic waters so as they stuck into newer material, such as ‘Instrument’, a resounding bass bumbled through the crowd. Members were pulled towards the group onstage as drummer, Liam O’Neill, proceeded to toy with intensity based on how hard he decided to punish the snare.

The bright blue lighting that glowed from the rear of the stage gave a clinical feel to the show adding to the sinister undertone. ‘Paralyzer’ and ‘UN-NO’ both possess a certain potency to them that puts shivers down your spine. The audience were cast into the lull of deep bass and hypnotic synthesised swirls as frontman, Ben Shemie, breathed: “I just wanna touch you / And hold you in my hands / I just wanna touch you / And feel you in my hands”, his voice felt as if it came from over your shoulder and behind your back – his unique sing/speak is truly the stuff of horror films.

Suuns' cascading textures allow their sets to be such unique experiences. They juxtapose minimalism with alarming sensations of maximum – ‘Resistance’ hangs off of a single lyric for much of the song and a sole synthesised throb before O’Neill builds and shatters the sound with single beats. They build the entire set around these discerning understandings of polar opposites – you can feel included as much as excluded, sexy as well as terrified and vulnerable. The bloodcurdling nature of ‘Pie IX’ is the perfect example of this concept that is so personal to the sound of Suuns. Coming from their debut release, it is provocative with its thick groove but simultaneously grotesque with the dread embedded within Shemie’s vocals that refuse to let you relax.

Much of their material draws from their latest release. This is no real shame but more just for purely selfish reasons I want more; their debut, Zeroes QC and Images du Futur are barely touched upon as the more guitar-heavy sections of their catalogue are discarded. When these guitar based cornerstones are recognised in the likes of ‘2020’ and ‘Powers of Ten,’ a new dynamic is found within their set. Shemie’s guitar pushes the sound in Patterns to new horizons, in contrast to so many of the bands I have seen there in the past, the sound is refreshingly loud.

What Suuns outlined at Patterns is that they are a band that are travelling further and further towards their sought out sound. Their astounding understanding of atmosphere and musicality is something that is exceptionally idiosyncratic to themselves. As they seem to be climbing closer and closer towards their peak, their intensity is something that would not necessarily suit venues too much bigger than Patterns. In complete honesty, I never really wanted tonight’s set to end. It was everything I really wanted from a group that were set to intimidate me a little.
Tom Churchill

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