Music Review: Temples, Sun Structures

By Less Lee Moore

When the time comes move with the feeling,
Lend your young ears to the sound of day.
—Temples, “Move With The Season”

Upon a first listen to Sun Structures, the debut album from Temples, it’s tempting to wonder if they’re time travelers. Sun Structures is drenched in late ’60s and early ’70s psychedelia, full of fuzzy, chiming guitars, phase shifters, mellotrons, faux sitars, and harps. Certainly there are curmudgeons out there who would roll their eyes at “England’s premier retro-futurists,” sputtering the names of a long list of bands from whom these four young men are blatantly stealing. Yet Temples cheerfully admits to their influences, with dozens of YouTube clips posted on their Facebook page indicating who has provided inspiration.

For those of us not as well versed in such music, it’s not only educational, but also helpful in trying to figure out where Temples fits into the neo-psychedelic scene. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. If Temples are ripping off bands I’ve never heard before, I truly don’t care because Sun Structures is just that enjoyable. Despite their love of more experimental bands like Soft Machine, Pink Floyd, Franco Falsini, Gong, Embryo, and others, Sun Structures is decidedly more radio-friendly, and I mean that in the best possible way. Many of its twelve tracks could be singles.

At any rate, Temples have more than enough of their own stylistic flourishes, like gigantic drums and thrumming bass in songs crammed with imaginative bridges and choruses as well as haunting harmonies. Singer/guitarist James Bagshaw seems compelled to fill every line with lyrics both poetic and preposterous. (And with an angelic voice like his, who could blame him?) At first I had no idea what he was going on about, but the words and music fuse to create such an atmosphere that it starts to make sense within its own glorious universe.

While the first few songs—”Shelter Song,” “Sun Structures,” “The Golden Throne”—have a distinct swirling poppiness, the album goes into a different direction with “Keep In The Dark” which evokes the shuffling sound of Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky.” The absurdly catchy “Mesmerise” manages to be sprightly and sunshiny while still retaining an undercurrent of melancholy. No easy feat, that. And though Bagshaw’s vocals are certainly a pleasure to hear, there’s something particularly sublime about the way he sings “now your life has changed” in the gorgeous “Move With The Season,” which is where the album really hits its stride. Before you can recover, “Colours To Life” hits you right in the heart with shimmery organs, guitars like shards of glass, and beautiful vocals from Bagshaw.

Handclaps and wordless singing open the almost hymnal “A Question Isn’t Answered,” along with lyrics like riddles that listeners will want to solve. “The Guesser” also has thoughtful lyrics plus a jazzy, driving beat that reminds me of both The Zombies and Edwyn Collins. “Test Of Time” continues the feeling of Temples straddling the line between the old and the new and the soaring vocals and harps in the chorus are remarkable. Perhaps the most evocative of all the songs on Sun Structures is the hypnotic, Middle Eastern-influenced “Sand Dance” which sounds exactly like you hoped it would from the title and lyrics. Temples certainly knows how to end an album, as the short, spare, yet delicate “Fragment’s Light” shows, taking you on a journey of sounds and emotions within its two minutes.

It’s thrilling when a band comes up with something this impressive for their first full-length release. Although the threads of their forebears are definitely woven throughout the tapestry of Sun Structures, it’s also obvious that Temples have a sound and vision all their own, one that will surely exhilarate us further in the future.

Sun Structures was released by Fat Possum on February 11, 2014.

Tour Dates:
Tue. Mar. 18 – Glasgow, UK @ O2 Academy ^
Wed. Mar. 19 – Leeds, UK @ O2 Academy ^
Thu. Mar. 20 – Manchester, UK @ Academy ^
Sat. Mar. 22 – Liverpool, UK @ O2 Academy ^
Sun. Mar. 23 – Nottingham, UK @ Rock City ^
Tue. Mar. 25 – Birmingham, UK @ O2 Academy ^
Wed. Mar. 26 – Bristol, UK @ O2 Academy ^
Thu. Mar. 27 – London, UK @ O2 Academy Brixton ^
Tue. April 8 – Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret *
Wed. April 9 – Seattle, WA @ Neumo’s *
Thu. April 10 – Portland, OR @ Star Theater (Soul’d Out Fest) *
Sat. April 12 – Indio, CA @ Coachella
Sun. April 13 – Santa Cruz, CA @ The Catalyst Atrium
Mon. April 14 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall *
Wed. April 16 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah *
Sat. April 19 – Indio, CA @ Coachella
Mon. April 21 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge *
Tue. April 22 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird *
Thu. April 24 – St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club *
Fri. April 25 – Madison, WI @ High Noon *
Sat. April 26 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall *
Sun. April 27 – Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick *
Mon. April 28 – Columbus, OH @ A+R Bar *
Wed. April 30 – St. Louis, MO @ Firebird *
Thu. May 1 – Kansas City, MO @ Record Bar *
Fri. May 2 – Dallas, TX @ Club Dada *
Sat. May 3 – Austin, TX @ Austin Psych Fest

^ w/ Interpol
* w/ support from Drowners