Sun Araw, the name-in-art of Cameron Stallones, American musician (Austin) based in Long Beach, is part of a new generation of experimenters who skillfully articulate heterogeneous sets of sources and inspirations: afro-beat, dub, psychedelia, retro-futurism, krautrock, and subterranean undercurrents. He debuted in 2008 with his first album The Phynx followed by Beach Head, Heavy Deeds, On Patrol and Off Duty. He is part of the Magic Lantern and is associated with Not Not Fun, collaborating on Passage, a recent album by Pocahaunted. In 2012 he began working with M. Geddes Gengras and the Congos, the legendary roots reggae vocalist, which led to the Icon Give Talk album released in the FRKWYS series by Rvng Intl, entering the top ten of the 2012 ranking by the prestigious Billoboard Magazine, an experience that was documented in the film Icon Eye, directed by Tony Lowe.
Den Doozle! is about losing oneself in a maze of musical references or abandoning oneself to the frayed space-time scheme. In one of the definitions given for the sound experience created by Sun Araw, there was talk of a "happy jungle of electronic and live sound repititions" and "loops, echoes, exploded basses and random moments that reconfigure the afro-beat, reggae and funk in a dizzying way." Neo-dub and psych-rock: these are definitions that try to categorize into a recording product most likely unmanageable phenomena in an era that slips away like sand between the toes. The quest, the research, is endless, that of Sun Araw and others of his generation. These are journeys of discovery, such as the recent one to Jamaica, which led to Icon Give Talk: reinstating roots in unstable terrain, like a dancehall arty disintegrated by a meteorite made of plastic. A dark quest at times, a transcendental journey with an uncertain outcome - tomorrow, who knows - between bits and mysterical Afro-Mediterranean traditions for an exemplary entrance into the transitory landscape of the twenty-first century.