Sandunes’ Spare Some Time boasts almost as many vocal features as it does tracks. For some, this will be a red flag—there are just as many ‘purists’ in the sphere of electronic music as in jazz; listeners whose blinkers go up even at the suggestion of vocals—but they needn’t worry. Sandunes classily incorporates the intimate vocal performances on this EP with her summery, skilful production and flair for pop songwriting.
It is difficult to single out one specific performance as strong, but this isn’t to discredit Spare Some Time. Despite its slight runtime, this EP focuses on consistency; it eschews grandiose swells of emotion in favour of an immovable and seductive tone. Sometimes a producer’s skill is in their restraint, their control. Sandunes is an excellent example of this, refusing to sacrifice her project’s cohesion for a cheap chance to show off.
It’s hard to parse what’s quite so effective about Spare Some Time. Like the Ophelia figure on its cover, the EP feels isolated, heartbroken, but peaceful all the same. And, beneath its lake’s verdancy and floral brightness, there is a sense of excess and menace—menace which we could drown in like XTC’s “bug in brandy”. It’s what you might imagine being played at some dystopian summer fete—the cold crack of the coconut shie.
I suspect all this pastoral British imagery is my own projection—but maybe that’s testament to how open Spare Some Time is. Sandunes is a Mumbai-based female producer; which in a male-dominated space (is there even any other kind) many cannot ignore. Sandunes’ position in the sphere of alternative electronic music is something about which she is “prudent, but also celebratory”. This prudency gives Spare Some Time a universiality—a broad appeal which will maximise the number of listeners will find that piece of themselves, that connection, in it. But Sandunes makes sure to retain enough of her own voice to make sure all the confessional stuff lands.
So as far as I can say: Spare Some Time takes you to the beach, but you can’t get the sand off afterwards; it buys you an ice-cream that melts on your hands before you can eat it—but, hypnotised, you follow it around anyway.
Spare Some Time is available for pre-order and streaming here.
Words: Andrew O’Keefe