Album Review: Stony Sugarskull – Lioness

Berlin’s Stony Sugarskull is the solo project of Dr. Monika Demmler, the doctorate is in “Biophilia and the Aesthetics of Blues, Jazz and Hip-Hop Music in African-American Prose Fiction” if you were wondering. Doctorates are not uncommon in the punk rock world but the nature of her thesis, and the fact she’s researching the healing functions of sound frequencies, indicates that her approach to music comes from a different angle than you’d normally encounter. Stony Sugarskull released her debut full length “Lioness” album last summer, the album originally didn’t make it to UK shores but thanks to STP Records it’s finally arrived in the now isolated and freshly locked down UK on white vinyl. 

‘House On Fire‘ opens “Lioness” with a straight up 4/4 Ramones drum beat, but that’s where the predictability ends, alongside the punk influences there is also the spiky angular approach of post punk, a distinct undertone from the world of psyche and, as in all the best releases, there is also a indefinable quality that separates Stony Sugarskull. At times recalling vintage punk rock, others it heads off into hypnotic sections that bring to mind Krautrock and some heady west coast psychedelia, all the while embracing and balancing the excess of art rock. You can’t pick a track or moment from “Lioness“, this is not an album that can’t be pinned down or pigeonholed, this is designed to be heard in full rather then embedded into an eternal and random shuffle

“Lioness” brings to mind the likes of Patti Smith, Lene Lovich, Danielle Dax and Karen O, but in the sense that this is unpredictable, original and doesn’t conform to anyone’s expectations,. The more you listen to “Lioness” the more you find yourself drawn in, given her current research then this just might be the album that world needs right now. “Lioness” is the soundtrack to the interesting times we live in, an old curse that certainly has a ring to it right now, and this is an album to lose and immerse yourself in, which is exactly what we need right now. Stony Sugarskull is currently working on her sophomore full length “PRiNCESS” and on the basis of experiencing “Lioness” it will be something to look forward to in 2021, something else we all need, that and a vaccination.

“Lioness” is now available on white vinyl in the UK via STP Records and digitally via Bandcamp, the album is also available through her own imprint Sugarskull Records in Europe and via Moon Bus Records in the US.