DR. SURE´S UNUSUAL PRACTICE – Total Reality

Description

Total Reality is the sound of a group in constant forward motion, finding new sounds and new ways to express their joy and catharsis in making music together. On album opener ‘Slug’ the band sing ‘I’m feeling like a slug so I gotta visit the doctor’, and though reliably tongue-in-cheek you get the feeling they mean it – the members using Dr Sure’s Unusual Practice as a vessel to lift each other up while unpacking the collective fatigue of life in late-capitalist society.
“A mood like that, you’re apt to stay in it, not dial your way out. Despair like that, about total reality, is self-perpetuating.” – Philip K Dick
On their third LP Total Reality – a title ripped from the classic sci-fi novel ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ – Dr Sure’s Unusual Practice tackle lofty issues through a hopeful lense, avoiding the often cynical pastiche of modern punk music. Total Reality touches on varied influences – proto-punk to post-punk, new wave to no wave, krautrock to trip-hop – to concieve something fresh and inspired.
Beginning in 2018 as a solo project, here Dougal Shaw is joined by an ever-expanding collective. In addition to a core band (Jake Suriano, Miranda Holt, Tali Harding-Hone, Mathias Dowle) the new record features contributions from Jack McCullagh (Cracodile), Stu Patterson (The Empty Threats/Placement), Alannah Sawyer (Babyccino/Mouseatouille), as well as Shaw’s partner Alivia Lester, and baby Blue – who also adorns the album cover.
An almost polar approach to the band’s acclaimed second LP ‘Remember The Future? Vol. 2 & 1’, which was tracked live in a recording studio, Shaw refers to Total Reality as a ‘collage album’. There are pieces of pandemic-era demo’s; drum machines coexisting with a live-tracked rhythm section; fresh collaborations; layers of guitars, synths, horns and percussion; collected field recordings and samples – all cut and glued in Shaw’s home studio to realise an expansive and colourful record.