AV Sunset – Vs Reality
Release Date: 4th September 2026
Label: Vandalism Begins At Home Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Post-Rock, Post-Metal, Progressive Rock, Alternative, Space Rock.
FFO: Oceansize, Mogwai, 65daysofstatic, Maybeshewill, Mono, Dredg.
Review By: Pete Wall
Formed during lockdown, Northampton/Milton Keynes four-piece AV Sunset return with their second album, Vs Reality, released via Luton DIY label Vandalism Begins At Home Records. Recorded in just seven days with Tom Peters at The Arch in Southport, the album builds on their instrumental post-rock sound with elements of noise rock, punk, prog and electronic music, shifting deftly between atmospheric passages and heavier, riff-driven material.
It’s an interesting time to be a fan of post-rock with the scene in apparently rude health while the majority of bands scramble to distance themselves from a genre label that they perceive to be reductive and constraining. It’s hard to argue with the resistance to the tag when it can be used to describe such a vast range of bands and styles. Ultimately anything instrumental with a quotient of explorative guitar work and some light and shade dynamics is going to get roped into an ever less exclusive club. To invoke a clanger of a cliché, the music will ultimately speak for itself. On Vs Reality, AV Sunset present six tracks that communicate in a familiar language, yet they undoubtedly have new things to say.
The delicate, shimmering, mournful opening to first track To Set the World on Six and Seven morphs into a fulsome, soaring second half that overflows with intent and will have more than a few hairs standing on end. Contemplative follow-up Figurine is built around a simple, repeated guitar motif that ducks in and out of the foreground as the band adds complexity and texture before folding in experimental electronics and allowing the dust to settle gracefully over the course of the final few minutes.
Towards the halfway point of the album it loses a little momentum with the less engaging Maat Mons, which teases a pay off that never arrives. This halfway point is also when comparison threatens to become the thief of joy with the looming influence of scene veterans like Dredg, Maybeshewill, and particularly Mogwai coming into sharper focus. Thankfully, AV Sunset then take it upon themselves to right the ship with the profoundly moving The Cheerleading Elite, a sumptuous piece that takes the vulnerability and crystalline beauty of earlier Explosions in the Sky and beefs it up with a punchier low end and a heart all the way out on its sleeve.
The closing pairing of title track Vs Reality and Alms for Oblivion are a fitting showcase of the band as they are today. The former is all confident progressions and shimmering reverb, while the latter allows AV Sunset to flex their muscles and serve up the album’s heaviest track that closes out with cathartic fury.
Vs Reality is a record that sees AV Sunset really get their feet under them and build meaningfully on their debut. The cocktail of familiar post-rock ingredients is enlivened with inventive electronics, increasingly assured writing, and a sense of direction that promises to set them apart from the pack.
(4 / 5)
