Sunrunner
Time in Stone
Deporter Records
So they legalize marijuana in Portland and look what happens: Sunrunner releases another prog album. Are high schoolers downloading Time in Stone on their iPads, making the trippy cover (a purple-caped figure entering the stone gargoyle’s gate) their wallpaper, and playing this album while de-seeding a dime bag on the screen?
No, they’re not. But Dad might. Sunrunner flashes back to prog’s brain-salad days, the early ’70s, when musical adventurers first explored the vast pomposity of the Topographic Oceans. On their debut, Eyes of the Master, the band betrayed penchants for heavy metal and Pan flute, at times narrowly escaping the jaws of ridiculousness. The four-piece has since added master guitarist Doug Porter (Covered in Bees, Johnny Cremains, Confusatron), whose presence is felt right at the chugging beginning of the first song, “The Temple,” and thickens and complicates the musical plot of the eight magical songs that follow.
As for the lyrical plot, who the hell knows what’s going on, and who cares? I suppose I could take the time to try to figure out the story (the CD comes with an eight-page booklet full of more prog-art and stuff), but unlike my suburban teenage years, I’ve got a life and a job now, and a girlfriend. Plus, it’s more fun to just marvel at the twists and turns these compositions take, like riding the old rollercoaster again at 40. Baked.
— Chris Busby
