On Patrol

Inspired by long slow takes from cameras in filmmaking, Sun Araw’s sixth studio album plays with panoramic, audio soundscapes unfolding before your ears. At over eight-and-a-half minutes long, the opening “Ma Holo” kicks off *On Patrol* with sleepy tropical funk played at head-nodding tempos and filtered through a humid gauze of lo-fidelity production. The similarly lengthy “Beat Cop” grooves slowly with dub-infused loops under bubbling analog effects and a hypnotic mantra of beats. “Conga Mind” sounds like Neil Young jamming with Lee Perry from the Pacific Ocean floor as nasal-inflected vocals croon over pulsing psychedelic organ drones and a soothing repetition of beats. Although “Deep Cover” gets a bit heavier on the rhythms, it doesn’t stray from Sun Araw’s quasi-formulaic penchant for producing the kind of peripheral ambiance that delivers intricate textures, should the listener choose to hone-in instead of zone-out. Eschewing bass and drums for the low stings on a guitar and a wah-wah pedal, “Dimension Alley” is a watery soundscape of undulating reverb and cosmic noodling. The epic “Holodeck Blues” closes with nearly 17 minutes of inner space rock.

Sun Araw's muggy psych-trance is given space and time to stretch out, simmer, deepen, and the results move from mesmeric to narcotic.