Rottenmeats reviews Somebody's Gotta Lose:

Frazzlededged guitar full of slow burning horizons, frayed and fuzzy riffs mutating... Slow evolutions coming across like a piper’s lament,but with more friction / swooping ...burring in sustain, like wire skyscrapers wavering round a puppet master's hands... Gathering and nitric, marvellous stuff that glows with an energy you can literally taste with your eyes...

Suddenly,a whooping cough is pulled across, looped/warbled, becoming vocal barrels rolling down the distant cobbles... then 10-11mins in, it’s cut to muted electro-acoustic two stroke riddled in fx diversions. This is gathered into vocals that are thrown across in successive echoes,falling about in delayed shadow fights. A delirium, full of warped signatures and sticky botox leakage. Delicious shivers sliding between dimensions, then settling for this one with a gentle humming.

First Ffrthesun review in the always excellent foxy digitalis

'From Another Sun' is the debut release from Fossils from the Sun; solo vehicle of Ray Hare (Century Plants, Burnt Hills). Here Hare steps back from the meditative roar of Century Plants and gives a more intimate glimpse into his diverse world of sound. Fossils From the Sun draw from such a wide sonic palette that a cursory listen may give the impression that the album consists of elements so disparate to one another that at points one may feel lost. But upon further listening one will begin to navigate the path that is so nicely laid out for the astute listener to discover.

It is, in fact, this idea of the path that comes to mind so often while listening to 'From Another Sun'; a visual analogue to the recording may perhaps be a series of images, most likely landscapes that all feature the same path, simply placed in different environments; in some the path is easy to locate, in others the one may find themselves lost until the very end. Essentially Hare's music is about a personal language that one needs to invest the time to comprehend before being welcomed in. Luckily he doesn't leave the listener completely in the dark, as to where to begin deciphering this language, as certain
familiar nods of the hat come about throughout. This is especially true on the more solemn guitar based works, where the likes of Loren Connors and Tom Carter are invoked. What one finds once officially in is a deep sense of musicality and personal searching.

Hare paints sonic landscapes, invoking a languid dream state where clarity occasionally leaps into being and disappears suddenly. The essence of 'From Another Sun' is that the album is simply a beginning step in Hare's personal search, and being privy to watch that process is quite intriguing, not all the pieces work perfectly, but when viewed as a whole you get something of quite a high caliber and from hearing some of forthcoming work posted on the Fossils From the Sun MySpace page, this will be a project well worth watching grow. 8/10 -- Cory Card (25 June, 2008)


ear conditioned nighmare was kind enough to review From Another Sun:

Just had Century Plants roll through campus for a killer show with New Monuments, a trio of Ben Hall of Graveyards, Brokenresearch, et al., C Spencer Yeh of Burning Star Core and Don Dietrich of Borbetomagus. Killer night all around, but it also motivated me to finally get around to this disc, the first solo effort from Ray of Century Plants' under his Fossils From the Sun moniker.

If you've heard Century Plants, Fossils From the Sun will be no surprise to you--a lot fo this material sounds like a more minimalist take on that group's efforts. Splitting the bill between slow guitar crawlers, synth masheries, and gentle guitar constructions, the whole thing flows like a charm, keeping each idea enclosed within itself without losing any of the seamlessness of pacing that surrounds every good album. Take the first track, 'Orange Blue,' and its transition into the second, 'Tasting the Crown.' Starting off with a simple chordal pattern warmly strummed, 'Orange Blue' uses its two minutes well, lulling you to get lost in it without it overstaying its welcome. As soon as it cuts, 'Tasting the Crown' comes in, creaking across the speakers like some frayed electric lines pumping heavy electron juice into some hillside or nearby cumulonimbus action. It's a different sound for sure, but one that is far from disconnected to the previous. Rather, it sets up another side of Hare's sound--each facet represented allows for more to be allowed throughout the disc.

'An Audit of the Sun,' the nine minute third track, is a wobbling heap of static and lo-fi drone with aspects of both Slow Listener and ultra-cruddy Skaters' sides. It's a pretty gigantic beast by its end, so 'Love' is a welcome respite. It's soft Loren Connors-y vibe, though perhaps a bit less minimal and more loping (in a good way). 'Will the Circle Be Broken?' is another solo guitar effort, only this time less pure and a tad bit more strung out as if Spacemen 3 had decided to jam out with Harmonia, only with a touch for gentle, unapologetic beauty that those group's surely lacked.

By the time the even more kosmiche 'Happy' feeds into 'Velcro,' an eight minute sludged out marathon of tasty licks fried to the bone, Hare basically has you along for the ride, and you can fully entrust that the last track, 'I'm Gonna Lose You (Song For a Future Sun),' will take you exactly where it must for the album to work. Starting off with a series of loops played through what sound like heating vents, the whole ride swarms up, for a good four and a half minutes before cutting right in the middle for a brief reverb drenched ditty of peace and quiet. Something to settle in by as the night draws to a close and the high wears off. Another Tape Drift winner.
Posted by Henry Smith at 5:41 PM 0 comments

ear conditioned nightmare listens to Somebody's Gotta Lose

The lovely Auxillary Out reviews - "Somebody's Gotta Lose":

Going by catalog number, I'll start with Fossils From the Sun. Somebody's Gotta Lose features some thick guitar playing. I don't know if there are loops here or what (doesn't necessarily sound like it) but Hare has a really expansive, robust fuzztone at his disposal here. And he uses it real well. A few minutes in there are some multi-tracked and/or looped layers of guitar. I like the sound Hare has created here where it feels pretty whole and unified but all the while he remains very active on his axe. He seems to have melodies going in every register; I particularly like the evocative, gliding tones he creates higher up on the neck—shimmering isn't the right word, but I'd say they sound full of electricity. Later, Hare introduces some percussive vocal type sounds. Not beat boxing, just so we're clear. Though that sure woulda thrown me for a loop. The vocals add an interesting, stammering dimension to the heavy sustain of the guitar. Roughly halfway through, the track takes a sharp left turn. The guitar drops out (vocals too), leaving a pulsing, crusty feedback loop. It seems like there are a number short repeating loops here all offset a little making for strange cross-pollinated rhythms. Vocal fragments and effect manipulation is introduced a bit later. It's interesting that the project is called Fossils From the Sun, cause this moment reminds me vaguely of a milder hypno-junk noise session by Canada's Fossils. It's a head scratching but successful changeup going from full on fuzz riffs and drones to a freaky bit of basement squalor.