British instrumental post-rock quartet AV Sunset announce new LP Vs Reality, share lead single “Maat Mons”
Northampton/Milton Keynes instrumental four-piece AV Sunset have detailed their second album, Vs Reality, and shared a new track, “Maat Mons”, ahead of its release on 4 September via Luton collective Vandalism Begins At Home Records.
The album was recorded at The Arch in Southport with producer Tom Peters (AMTP, Empire State Bastard, A Burial At Sea) and mastered by Stephen Kerrison (Sans Froid, LIFE, Bicurious). It marks the first time the quartet have written and recorded a full body of work as a four-piece, and the group are clear they treated the process as a step up.
“We’re hugely proud of this album,” the band said in a press release statement. “It’s the first we’ve written and recorded together as a four-piece, and it’s a huge step up for us both in scope and in quality. Every one of these songs was painstakingly crafted and rehearsed to death before we got into the studio. They’re beautiful when they need to be and absolutely savage in places as well.”
Guitarist Tom Pegg described “Maat Mons” as “the closest we’ve got to a straight-up banger” – a four-minute rush of layered synth pedals, loopers, tremolos, octave effects and off-kilter reverbs that nods to the kinetic electronics of 65daysofstatic. “There’s so much packed into this one, it’s nuts that it’s only four minutes long,” he added. “It’s got huge hooks, crazy soundscapes and effects, polyrhythms, fat riffs and just an ace energy throughout.”
Musically, the band are reluctant to let Vs Reality sit neatly inside a single genre. “We’ve definitely refined our sound on this record, to the point where we don’t think there’s anyone else that sounds like us,” they said. “You could call us a post-rock band, but we love a massive dirty riff and the squeal of feedback, and we take just as much influence from noise rock, punk, indie, prog and electronic music as we do from the more standard instrumental influences.”
AV Sunset formed during the tail-end of lockdown and self-released their debut, Disconnections, in December 2023. Since then they have clocked up extensive UK gigging, sharing bills with ASIWYFA, Slow Crush, Hubris, and Press to Meco, and have a run of dates lined up through the summer and autumn, including shows at Cambridge’s Portland Arms on 12 June, Birmingham’s Rainbow on 5 September and Milton Keynes’ Craufurd Arms on 18 September.
Vandalism Begins At Home is a Luton-based grassroots label and podcast.
Vs Reality artwork
Vs Reality is released on 4 September via Vandalism Begins At Home Records
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