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Cameron Stallones began his musical career as a founding member of the experimental psychedelic rock collective Magic Lantern. Soon after, demos originally intended to light the Lantern became the first Sun Araw LP: The Phynx. Sun Araw blossomed as a solo project in attempted geosynchronous orbit with the Eternal Now: oblique six-dimensional transmissions from changeless environs. Structural and spiritual inspiration for Sun Araw comes primarily from Cameron’s first artistic love: film and filmmakers Read more on Last.fm
On Patrol is certainly Cameron Stallones’ most fully realized outing under his Sun Araw moniker – it’s easily his most conceptually tight release since the “Boat Trip” EP (and four times as long to boot) and seemingly less purely improvisational than, say, the middle parts of Heavy Deeds or most of Beach Head. It doesn’t really make sense to listen to anything off of On Patrol out of the context of the whole, though, and that may be part of the reason that nothing here feels particularly revelatory in the way that tracks like “Horse Steppin’,” “Heavy Deeds” or “All Night Long” did on first listen, despite the record’s notable change in tone.
Given the strength of the 7” that immediately preceded On Patrol (“Bump Up (High Step)” b/w “Live Mind”) I don’t think Stallones has lost his ability to produce great stand-alone tracks, and the B-side of the more recent “Off Duty” EP, “Deep Temple,” proves that the alien beach party well that has proven so viable for him in the past has far from dried up. It’s hard to tell at this point if On Patrol represents a one-shot foray away from those beach vibes upon which he built his name or the next step in the continued evolution of Sun Araw, but what I think is important to note about the album is that it shows an ambition rare in music today. With every successive release Stallones expands his sound and proves himself an artist unwilling to sit in one place and be pigeon-holed, and never before has he seemed so comfortable with his alias.