Kevin Bronson on February 8th, 2019

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It’s been 3 1/2 years since experimental rock quartet Sun Drug released their debut EP. Not that any of them have been twiddling their thumbs.

Collin Desha has an album coming out this summer as Low Hum. Taylor Brown has been working on music under the name Slip. Cameron Dmytryk has shredded in the noise-rock trio Facial. Steven Wilkin has released music as Adult Bodies. And that’s in addition to some side gigs playing in other people’s projects.

All are former members of the rock band Vanaprasta, which never got its due, and they soldier on admirably in pushing sonic boundaries and carving out their own distinct artistic spaces. In Sun Drug, that space is where menacing guitar and bass, electronic beats and atmospheric vocals collide — a cinema of ennui mixed with hope.

The title of Sun Drug’s forthcoming album is “Joyfreaker,” expected in April. The name is an homage to the fifth member of Vanaprasta, drummer Ben Smiley, who died in April 2017. “Joyfreaker” was Smiley’s online handle.

“Post+Break” is the lead track on the album, a throbbing latticework of guitar, bass and beats that synth-slides into a different dance-punk gear at the 2-minute mark. “It’s OK / I should have thought about you in a different way,” Wilkins sings, moving on with nonchalant resignation.

“More than anything this is about surrendering to the matter at hand — the fact that sometimes we hope for something that isn’t reality,” Wilkin explains. “I think it’s really interesting that ‘Post+Break’ comes after an obvious break in our band. … People sometimes have a hard time showing you who they really are, and sometimes you’re better off thinking about each other in a different way and not forcing the issue. Because you’re too scared to try life out alone.”

||| Stream: “Post+Break”

||| Previously: “Soaked”