Three-piece instrumental space rock band SUMO, hailing from sunny Miami, stands sealed in a perpetual cycle of creation and collapse, breathing both ethereal calm and roaring fury. Their sound shimmers between ink-stained literature and flickering cinematic frames, their approach both deliberate and delirious. They pit science against superstition, let reason wrestle with ritual, and set all these tensions to grind against upheaval’s gritty edge.
Formed in 2013, SUMO has navigated their own path, releasing two full-length albums and three atmospheric singles (the ATMOS series). Their essence, distilled to its core, can be said in two words: Pretty. Heavy. SUMO’s purpose pivots on paradox, producing both the polished and the primal. Their music mingles molten murmuring, shifting shape in storms of sound and silence. All is flux and friction, calm and chaos, swirling in that strange space where each element endures both its formation and its falling apart.
Here lies a bold declaration: that art and inquiry, in tandem, can chart new galaxies of the soul.
III, SUMO’s impending third release through their independent label, Rikishi Records, strikes like a storm splitting the horizon. It roars to life with Alyssa, a track that opens on Werner Herzog’s ominous intonation before unleashing blistering metal riffs that shred the air with reckless precision.
The mood pivots sharply with IPCRESS, its brooding tones evoking the cold, calculated chill of mind control. Inspired by Len Deighton’s The Ipcress File, the acronym—“Induction of Psycho-neuroses by Conditioned Reflex under Stress”—hints at a sinister apparatus of manipulation, a nod to the novel’s dark world of espionage and forced allegiance.
Shadow of Antiope twists the tale further, melding jazz’s fluid intricacy with metal’s unrelenting fury. In myth, Antiope embodies captivity and suffering, her shadow symbolizing the enduring echoes of pain and power. Here, that shadow sprawls, an aching reminder of humanity’s entangled fates, resonating through every searing note and defiant beat.
The album sways and shifts, gliding effortlessly between genres like a comet cutting through cosmic dusk. Eta Carinae propels the listener into a spiraling freefall, tumbling through the boundless void before settling gently on the icy surface of Enceladus, its final offering. Each track brims with thoughtful nods to philosophy and science, conjuring a curious alchemy of intellect and intuition. It’s a collision of form and freedom, a daring fusion where celestial imagery meets earthly experimentation. This collection, alive with bold leaps and sharp turns, stitches the cerebral to the visceral, forging a bridge between the known and the uncharted. Here lies a bold declaration: that art and inquiry, in tandem, can chart new galaxies of the soul.
III, recorded at Sound Artillery Studios with Jonathan Nuñez, is available now. Listen below and order the album here.
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