When I was in the Mountain Lakes library a week or two ago, I was scrolling through the saved music on my phone when I spotted something unusual. Under the name “Sweet Trip,” there was a new EP I’d never heard before, which is odd, because the band has been on hiatus since 2009. To my amazement, though—as several news sources confirmed—the obscure indie outfit has returned from its 12-year vanishing act. And even more amazing is that the band will be releasing their fourth full-length album, A Tiny House, in Secret Speeches, Polar Equals, in March (via Darla Records). In honor of Sweet Trip’s sudden return to the stage, I find it appropriate to revisit their classic 2009 album You Will Never Know Why (which they just remastered, with three added bonus tracks, not two weeks ago).
Sweet Trip’s newest EP, Walkers Beware! We Drive Into The Sun (Jan. 14, 2021)
Between 2009 and 2021, with the exception of a few singles and minor archival releases, Sweet Trip essentially went “radio silent.” Many fans assumed—myself included—that the band had disintegrated and that bandleaders Roberto Burgos (aka .blacktunic), Viet Le, and Valerie Cooper had moved onto other projects.
In a December 2020 interview, though, Burgos and Cooper confirmed their return to the music scene, following a 12-year hiatus. Burgos is adamantly promoting the forthcoming album (A Tiny House, in Secret Speeches, Polar Equals) as his all-time favorite.
An early photo of Sweet Trip. Pictures of the band from before 2021 are extremely rare because Sweet Trip disliked media attention.
The 2000’s indie scene of San Francisco was not particularly welcoming to Sweet Trip’s unusual fusion of electronic, glitch, IDM (intelligent dance music), and ambient influences. This may have been the cause of the band’s sudden departure from the noisy, “Wall-of-Sound” approach heard in their second album, Velocity : Design : Comfort. However, this can be owed to numerous other factors. For one thing, Sweet Trip was never strongly rooted in glitch music, so why all the weird effects on Velocity : Design : Comfort?
The futuristic album art for Velocity : Design : Comfort (VDC).
The presence of glitching noises on VDC resulted from Burgos’ desire for the “record to sound like flipping channels late at night and seeing and hearing all kinds of weird infomercials.” Also, the cover art is meant to resemble a product, and the title is the slogan for the product (tracks like “Design : 2 : 3” also follow this nomenclature). On You Will Never Know Why, Sweet Trip relied more heavily on infectious riffs and song structures, though their sound still retained the atmospheric and experimental nature of shoegaze and dream pop. The instrumentation was, on the whole, simpler; the excess noise effects were done away with in order to make things easier for themselves and so that the “sound guy” would not “go berserk,” in Cooper’s words.
Nevertheless, Burgos states that there is no regularly scheduled program for Sweet Trip. For all we know, their next album could come out tomorrow or sixty years from now. Furthermore, the band does not seek only to produce the most accessible, profitable, and welcoming music for its fans. That mindset would be the antithesis to their constant experimentation.
Sweet Trip sitting down.
Admittedly, though, Burgos and Cooper found it incredible that the band could reform seamlessly after so many years of separation. In addition, Cooper confirms that the forthcoming album will be a mélange of past and present influences…but beyond that, the band has not revealed any details about their “comeback” album.
As for the tracks themselves, they are not too dissimilar from one another. Much like their first album, Halica, which tended strongly towards ambient techno, You Will… tends strongly towards indie pop and dream pop. There is a consistency to the songs, though of course each has unique structure and instrumentation. In their discography, then, VDC clearly stands out for its fusion of several genres, including IDM, glitch, shoegaze, dream pop, techno, and more.
The new album art for the remastered edition of You Will… (Jan. 22, 2021)
All in all, Sweet Trip can barely even be classified as an electronic act. Their range is so diverse that it’s extremely difficult to pinpoint a label under which they can be qualified. In fact, a handful of the songs on You Will… were recorded in other sessions: “Air Supply” and “Milk” were composed contemporaneously with VDC. Burgos claims that these tracks were omitted from VDC for “not fitting in,” which sheds light on the ethos of Sweet Trip. Despite composing songs in no particular frame of genre or time, Sweet Trip feels that songs can only fit into specific records in order to match the current “vibe” of the band.
The record opens with Conservation of Two, led by a driving bassline and a kickdrum (the latter of which features heavily in the album). After the male/female harmonies build, the guitar takes center stage. The track is fairly short and transitions into the next, but, all things considered, classifying Conservation of Two as an overture would be highly misleading. This track is highly different from any other on the record. And to me, the bassline harkens back to Burgos’ early obsession with metal, especially Iron Maiden. Though the bass does not have the abrasive or brutal tone native to heavy metal, it is most certainly sinister and portentous. The Iron Maiden influence does not appear anywhere else on You Will… (to my knowledge), and there are little to no synthesizer effects. This is not the case for the rest of the songs, as we will soon learn. Maybe it would better be described as a prelude.
Burgos cites Powerslave by Iron Maiden as a large influence on his music.
Air Supply, which takes its name from a 1970’s soft rock band, makes heavy use of synthesizer arpeggios. Then comes Forever, a blissful ballad that builds and swells; finally, the tension releases with ultra-stacked, ultra-compressed synths that echo beautifully and triumphantly. At this point, it becomes clear that the lyrics are somewhat meaningful and impactful, but not quite cohesive. This idea of abstract lyrical expression follows Brian Eno’s “anti-lyrics” movement, or Elizabeth Fraser’s use of glossolalia (i.e. gibberish) as lead singer for Cocteau Twins.
To even attempt to describe the following track, Milk, would be a commission of blasphemy to the highest order. Alas, in sparing no details, I must proceed to describe it anyway. Still, I highly recommend you experience it for yourself. Milk is intimate, yet distant; optimistic, yet melancholic; simple, yet complex. It features only Cooper’s voice behind an acoustic guitar and a less prominent electric guitar. When Cooper says the words “You will drift away…” she sings the next half-step up, and the effect is remarkable. Astounding.
Roby Burgos (left) sports a dapper outfit while Valerie Cooper does some light reading.
Next, Acting—a tune that sounds much like a Velocity : Design : Comfort track—starts off with laidback, ambient techno with a hint (merely a sprinkle) of dream pop. Once again, thumping bass notes (played by Viet Le and Roberto Burgos). Then, it transitions into fast-tempo, high-octane dream pop. Supported by organ-like synthesizers that play hypnotizing countermelodies, the uncommon time signatures enter (in what appears to be 10/8 followed by ¾). Interestingly, the intro and outro to Acting (but not the rest of the song) were written around 2001, at the release of Velocity : Design : Comfort. The song fades out with sustained Mellotron chords, then returns at 6 minutes with Burgos’ voice only. A Wall of Sound envelops all, and Cooper’s voice follows—the ambience returns, and then drifts away before being interrupted by blasting noise in Darkness.
Rapid synthesizer arpeggios, like a hummingbird flying away, are layered between jagged, staticky pulses. Darkness emphasizes what a gift Sweet Trip has with hyper-melodic hooks and strong, airy melodies. It’s a relief, once in a while, from all the bleep-bloops and TV static. A hint of chiptune is heard (think 8-bit), like we’re in an LSD-induced playthrough of Super Mario. Sweet Trip loves to contrast dark, existential lyrics with lush instrumentation. It’s like the final dream before you die, hence the suggestive album cover.
The original cover for the album (Sept. 28, 2009).
“Darkness comes to murder the sunshine
Darkness comes to help me believe
That we’ll never again be together
Love has turned to summon the breeze
I will never fall,
I will never fall in love again”
And then it all comes to a close with an Insanely Epic™, repetitive, and harmonic guitar riff. More uncommon time signatures and interesting harmonies return in To The Moon. A diverse array of synthesizer effects complement infectious motifs.
Then, we hear two short interludes (each less than 2 minutes long) that transition the album from upbeat dream pop and indietronica into bittersweet indie pop lullabies. Depressive, melancholic, and atmospheric, the electronic ballad “Song About A Sea” features intense and ominous tone clusters which, after looping several times, transition into “Song About a Sun,” which is even more psychedelic and distant.
No Words to be found is innocent, blissful, romantic ambient pop. Then, the 8-bit sound returns on Pretending, with a synthesized saxophone-like sound effect. For lack of better words, this song is the closest thing to audible crack cocaine. Pretending is such an addicting pop song that grows on you every listen. First, you fall in love with Cooper’s voice, then the subtle but driving drum effects, then the powerful guitar chords that harken back to the indie rock scene of the 2000’s.
“Misfortunes are so cruel…they come in two” sing Cooper and Burgos on Misfortunes Are Cruel, on top of a bouncy, synthy bass riff. Suddenly, rapid keyboard arpeggios fly in out of nowhere, and then disappear into the synth bassline.
Your World is Eternally Complete is a reassuring zen anthem. So uplifting and empowering, it stands in stark contrast to the talk of death, love, and existentialism on the other songs. It feels so distant, yet so near — it captures the nostalgia of the past while also the candor of the present. Silence, then gated reverb drums pull the song into the “Dream” of dream pop. Otherworldly and cathartic, Your World is assuredly one of the highlights of the album.
Your World Is Eternally Complete reminds me of the Golden Pavilion in Japan.
Female Lover, though a brilliant song in its own regard, does not match the catharsis delivered by Your World. There is no doubt that it highlights Burgos and Cooper’s electronic experimentation, but the song sounds too much like a Stereolab B-Side.
With the bonus tracks, there is a lot to work with. Silence focuses on the jazzy, bossa nova sound of Cooper’s Spanish guitar. Thing to Ponder is very much a return to form, combining ambient, glitch, and shoegaze. After three minutes, the song slows to a halt, and then is revived by a indie pop union of ideas, old and new. It is the quintessential ending to a perfect album, with so many harmonies and countermelodies going on at once that it takes a couple of listens to discover them all.
Through and through, I am so relieved to hear of Sweet Trip’s long-awaited reunion. The band has had so much undiscovered potential, and with many more releases to come, I truly hope the band will make a triumphant return to the music scene. And I wish I knew the exact reason behind Sweet Trip’s decade-long hiatus, but I guess it’s better to accept that I Will Never Know Why.
0
0
Average Rating