ALBUM REVIEW: Loop – Sonancy

Cooking Vinyl

Released: 11.03.22

While Robert Hampson’s influential psych projects have been active on and off for much of the last decade, Sonancy is the first new full-length under the Loop name since its initial revival in 2013: while 2015’s Array 1 EP (the only other new Loop music since 1990) found Hampson pushing towards more lengthy, free-form sounds, Sonancy pushes insistently in the other direction.

A taut, punkish album often more akin to latter-day Wire or more modern acolytes like Moon Duo (whose own cyber-glam sound is reflected back on tracks like Eolian), the record’s quest for urgency is to be appreciated: given the abrupt non-endings of Supra and Aurora, there’s material here that could have benefitted from more breathing room.