Sun Mahshene - "Drones That Don't Kill" (LP review)

A year ago yesterday, Terry, Drew, and several other of us saw the Irish band Sun Mahshene at a bar in Dublin, Ireland.  We were there for Terry's bachelor party and Terry had researched where we could catch some live music close to where we were staying.  We listened to some of their stuff on Youtube and decided to arrange our schedule so we could catch them performing that Saturday.  They put on a great show and we were able to purchase one of their last copies they had with them that evening of their 2016 EP "Drones That Don't Kill".

Their web site describes their sound as:

Lead by Nathan Henderson, Sun Mahshene is a collective of musicians from Dublin Ireland. Their melodic hooks mixed with fuzz and grit delivers a sonic wall of sound.

This brings up a recent conversation Danette and I had last week: I stated that I thought 96X was no longer as alternative as they used to be, to which Danette countered that perhaps the definition of alternative had changed.  I thought about it some and decided that probably at least part of it, because I prefer my "alternative" to stick mostly to modern interpretations of 80s and early 90s alternative music.  Sun Mahshene certainly does that: a shoegazing sound with heavy influences from "Darklands"-era The Jesus and Mary Chain and "Bad Moon Rising"-era Sonic Youth.  So, yeah, it's new music, but there is a clear line of sight back to what for me (and presumably for Danette, Terry, Drew, et al. as well) is real alternative music; the aural equivalent of what we in the car world call "new old stock" (see also the video for "No Control", which is reminiscent of Terry's light shows back in the day...).

The streaming EP has four tracks, but the CD has a hidden fifth track ("I Love You").  It's just a few bucks and it would be a great addition to your collection.  And keeping with the theme of this post, I'm happy to have the actual CD in my collection.

Standout songs: "No Control", "In the End" (with a great guest vocal from Lydia Des Dolles that would make Hope Sandoval proud), "You", "I Love You" (hidden track)

Skip 'em songs: n/a

Final score: 7/10

Bonus links: Review on Primal Music, Review on GoldenPlec

Bonus pic:

May 27, 2017, at the correct bar (Sin é, IIRC), but after the band was done -- who thought to take a pic of Sun Mahshene performing?

Update (bonus bonus pic): Drew sent me this image and "reminded" me that he was smart enough to take a pic of the band performing...