Gentle, pop inflected music with Alt.Country influences mixing with more European sounds. Belgicana?
Belgian band Sukilove were built on the songs of singer Pascal Deweze and formed in 2001. After splitting in 2013, they came back for some reunion shows in 2024. At the same time Deweze decided to remaster their eponymous 2002 album for its first vinyl edition.
Having been part of an alternative rock band, Metal Molly in the 90s Deweze saw Sukilove as a gentler antidote to the noise. With the help of drummer Stoffel Verlackt who lived in his apartment building and bass playing neighbour Pieter Van Buyten he found himself with an acoustic live group.
Listening to the album now it sounds ahead of its time, with bands like Brown Horse taking a similar template to critical success in the last year or so. Opening song ‘Time To Go’ is a dreamy acoustic tune with plucked string sounds in the background and wispy harmonies. ‘Hang On’ could easily have come from Brown Horse’s first album with keyboard-derived accordion and slide guitar to add some bite to a simple tune.
‘Shame You Never Worry’ has a Brazilian shuffle to it with fuzz guitar akin to the sort of music Beck was producing on his ‘Mutations’ album at about the same time as Sukilove were coming together. ‘Computing Beauty’ is one of the most “Americana” songs here and Deweze had clearly been listening to albums like ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’ and ‘In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.’
The middle part of the album drifts towards more acoustic songs like ‘Just A Lazy Day’ and the bluesy ‘Did You Ever Feel So Lonely.’ A Neil Young style guitar riff opens ‘As Long As I Survive Tonight,’ another song which feels like it originated in late 90s Alt.Country. But as with most of the other songs here there are other influences creeping in.
Listening through the later songs on the album, ‘Please Don’t Ever Change’ with another Young-derived guitar and more Accordion, and the slightly off-key ‘There’s a Light,’ the thought occurs that they missed their spiritual home, Glitterhouse Records. The vaguely gothic feel to the music, and the decidedly European take on Americana, mixed with bits of Radiohead and more Germanic influences would have fit right into the label’s roster.Closing song ‘Good Blood Will Prevail’ quotes Elton John and is a two-minute round-up of many of the album’s lyrical themes of loneliness and relationships, only occasionally finding an optimistic outlook.
After some research on Bandcamp it becomes clear that Sukilove never made the same record twice and that Deweze’s alternative rock influences reasserted themselves on later albums culminating in 2012’s ‘Drunkaleidoscope’ which was closer to Portishead. Alongside this first Sukilove Deweze was working in acoustic duo Chitlin Fooks who produced 2 albums of “dusty old folk and country music,” in 2001 and 2002. So, it seems likely that the more Americana aspects of this album were filtered through that group. One caveat is that while this has been remastered with vinyl in mind only streams were offered for review and appear to be the original 2003 version. The track listing for the vinyl excludes ‘There’s a Light’ presumably on running time grounds.
However, it came about this is an album that while very much of its time also feels quite current in its mood, and if ‘Sukilove’ is new to you then it should find a place in your collection.
