Sunglasz Vendor, the three-piece Bristol-based experimental rock band, returns with a teaser of what’s to come as they release their single ‘Ice Cream Tubs’ from their upcoming album, ‘Unwinding.’
An unpredictable whirlwind of instrumentation, ‘Ice Cream Tubs’ opens with an eerie alternating bassline, quickly matched by a reassuring rhythm guitar tone. As the song progresses, we face a real change in emotion, from calm to chaotic. Lead vocalist (Rafi Cohen) transitions from a mundane performance to a stylised distorted vocal. Cohen hones in on the emotions you face post-breakup, this feeling of just wanting to hide away and not face up to the music.
Lyrically, ‘Ice Cream Tubs’ covers everything from self-doubt, confusion, and the feeling of immense guilt when faced with the reality of how you acted in the moment leading to an inevitable breakdown, correlating with the calm-to-chaotic instrumental.
On the track Cohen offers, “This is an in-depth, reflective trawl through a time when me being emotionally stunted really hurt someone I care about. You cannot be a good person to the important people in your life unless you are honest with them and yourself.”
The track, along with the album, was recorded with William Carkeet (Robbie & Mona) across eight days in the midst of the bleak winter months. Recorded in the basement of an iconic Bristol venue, ‘The Louisiana’, you can only imagine that the conditions helped with getting them into the mindset of recording this kind of track – braving the gloomy weather of the UK while facing constant darkness before and after studio time. While not easy, it does seem like the perfect weather for recording a self-reflective breakup song.
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