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Sel Balamir and band are no strangers to the self-released EP (think 2009’s Eternity or 2011’s Fractal), and this one comprises four tracks recorded at the same time as 2013’s excellent Echo Street. While they were left off the original album these tunes were bundled in on a separate disc on the special edition of Echo Street.

Now released in its own right on the band’s website (along with the recent Live In Barcelona 2013), Sunriders EP offers music thoroughly in-keeping with the overall feel of that album, which rather begs the question: why leave them off it in the first place?

With its drawn-out overture, the reflective opener Spacemen is dedicated to the memory of Neil Armstrong, and this contrasts with the title track, which rests on a choppier guitar riff before drifting into an exotic, Eastern vibe with serious vocal harmonies brightening the whole. Never And Always keeps the tempo rising again, this one all angular, shards of guitar against Balamir’s haunting vocal delivery.

Rounding things off, Close returns to the thoughtful air of that opener, and completes what is a sumptuous little musical journey in just 20 minutes.

Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.