I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: April 1, 2025] Nanocluster : Immersion | Suss

I stumbled upon Suss one night when I was looking for music to relax to.  I got a kick out of the name–my kids had been using it as slang quite a lot at the time–and really enjoyed their music.  The seem to be described as “ambient country” which would have turned me off.  I’d rather think of them as a soundtrack to the open spaces in the midwest and west (even though all three members are from New York City.

The trio is Jonathan Gregg: Pedal Steel, dobro ; Bob Holmes: Mandolin, baritone guitar, acoustic guitar, harmonica, violin, Keyboards ; Pat Irwin: Electric guitars, National guitar, eBow, harmonium, keyboards, melodica, loops.

Then one night I was listening to Echoes on NPR and they had an interview with Suss.  Which seemed coincidental.  And they mentioned this album that they had made with Immersion.   Immersion is a project from Colin Newman of Wire.  He and Malka Spigel (his wife) who played in Minimal Compact started this electronic project some 30 years ago.  Then in 2021 they started doing Nanocluster projects where they collaborated with others.  Volume 3 featured Suss.  So this was a tour of the album (which is short) as well as sets from each band.

I almost never sit in the balcony at Johnny Brenda’s.  I like to be up by the stage.  But this show, which promised to be very chill, seemed like a great opportunity to go upstairs and grab a stool!

Suss came out first.  They were clustered close together because there was so much gear on the stage.   They had two screens behind them.  Each one projected the same thing (which was weird when it was a  camera panning over a landscape since it seemed like it should continue from one screen to the next rather than being the same thing, but that’s fine.

The three guys bent over their instruments and made beautiful instrumental music.  Keys, slide guitar and other instruments created a dreamy feeling of being in open spaces.  After about 15 minutes or so they were joined by a bass player (whose name I didn’t catch),  he didn’t add fancy bass lines, just a nice low end.  They ended as a trio with one of the guys whistling a sad mournful melody. 

They played for about 40 minutes and then Immersion came on.  They stood at the back of the stage, with Malka on keys and Colin on guitar.  They played ambient music with a bit more of a pulse, if that makes sense.  There was no percussion, but Malka often kept up a steady (and reasonably fast) bass note going.   Their songs were a bit more song-like.  Indeed, some of them had vocals (mostly by Malka, although Colin joined in on some songs).  And their vocals were mostly reciting things.  They also used the video screens.

It was really kind of bizarre hearing Colin Newman’s voice.  I was never a huge fan of Wire, but I liked them and I feel like his voice is distinctive.  So I enjoyed that quite a lot too.

They played for about 40 minutes and then Suss came back on the stage to join them.  I was a little surprised t discover that this collaboration was more of a Suss project with help from Immersion rather than the other way around. I read afterwards that that’s what these projects is about–for Immersion to invite a band to do their thing and they will add bits and pieces to the music. So one song had three guitars (including Newman) and one of the Suss guys on violin, while Spigel added soft keys.

A couple of the songs have lyrics, but I rather preferred the instrumentals.  Nothing against the vocals, but it did take away from the overall vibe.

There were a couple faster paced songs, like the one where Colin and one of the Suss guys played electric guitar, Malka played bass, and it was rounded out by acoustic guitar and pedal steel.  This one also had a quiet drumbeat (programmed, obviously) that provided the real tempo.

I am fairly certain they played the whole album–the combined set was 40 minutes and that’s how long the album is.

So it was basically three 40 minute sets all combined into a two hour evening of very cool music.