The Sound of the Colour of the Sun

The history of Canadian space rock/shoegazer darlings Sianspheric is obviously full of turmoil, filled with constant lineup changes, several periods of hiatus, and so on, but three years between Else and the release of The Sound of the Colour of the Sun may have been the most potentially problematic. Marking the return of original member Paul Sinclair and the addition of bassist/guitarist Locksley Taylor, you wouldn't think the group would be able to transition smoothly into this album — but they do. The songs bleed together effortlessly, maintaining that My Bloody Valentine-esque sound, with a dash of Verve thrown in on tracks like "To Myself," which is especially evident in the vocals (A Storm in Heaven Verve, not Urban Hymns). Sianspheric never really seems restricted by their fuzzed-out and hazy sound; the album, which clocks in at just under an hour, never gets monotonous. In fact, it is the slow development of tracks — like the haunting "Slightly Less Sunshine," which takes over three minutes to reach its pinnacle — that makes the album as a whole so mesmerizing. While this insular nature may keep Sianspheric tied down and grounded to a certain amount of stylistic development, you'd never even think such a thing was true after listening to this album. They certainly have a long way to go before this material and style go stale for them, and maybe that's why their turmoil and ever-changing roster never seem to phase them; perhaps that's what keeps things fresh.