Electric Sunset is a new solo project from Nic Zwart who, up to February this year, was the guitarist and lead vocalist of trippy West Coast band Desolation Wilderness. Inspired by his recent move back to his hometown, San Francisco, his self titled debut album is a combination of ambient and pop with loud synthetic percussion and strong bass lines. Electronic yet organic, Zwart has composed a collection of textured songs that gleam with rich psychedelic production and rousing indie. Fans of Deerhunter take note. Using synthesisers, guitar, modified samplers and computers, it’s an engaging listen. True, there’s little among the nine tracks that’ll really make you jump out of your chair hailing a classic, but Zwart is an artist that weaves together his songs piece by piece, creating a hypnotic blanket of sound.

Lyrically, Electric Sunset tells us tales of loss, love and self-discovery, but musically the blissed out record skips along with ease (it can’t be much longer than 40 mins in total). With the swirling synths of ‘Palace’ and slow fuzz of ‘Future Dream’, the album uncoils itself hazily before really reaching its stride with ‘Morning City’ where Zwart wraps shimmering guitar and vocals in a thick cover of shoegazer murk. This is the stand out track and, basically, the rest of the songs tend to follow suit with more slow-burning ambience and affected sounds. Further moments do seize you like the melted rock of ‘Last Night on Earth’ but unfortunately, with introspective mood and/or tempo not changing dramatically, Electric Sunset does feel like it lacks some versatility. Deerhunter are so captivating because they have the ability to shift styles seamlessly without losing any fluency and, whilst Zwart’s record never fails to create a mood, Bowlegs wishes there were a few more disjoints and risks taken. JN