Methinks Stephen Murray has something to say about DEI. That's a joke on a couple of levels. Murray is a multi-instrumentalist who records as Sun Raven. He plays a lot of instruments, and he embraces a lot of sounds. And he's not afraid to throw just about everything into a three-minute song.

Sun Raven Anam Cara (self-released)

So there's no meandering. Murray simply blisters through prog-jazz-electronic-stoner-post-rock-etc., throws down a song and then moves on to the next piece. Despite the breadth of ideas and sounds, this is hardly introspective fare.

Rather the opposite, really. There's a lot of exposition and very little rumination, which is the opposite tack for most of the sounds that appear here. It's kinda cool, really. Each song is like a supernova, rebounding into the next brief explosion of ideas and sound.

In that way, perhaps Murray won't quite satisfy fans. But I like this one banger after another approach. There's no need to slow down when the attack is this fluid and effective. In subverting expectations, Sun Raven bursts into new avenues of wonder. Catch your breath, if you can.

Jon Worley