Biography

One of a small number of groups based in the UK geared towards psychedelic rock music in the 90s, Sundial have been at pains to distance themselves from the worst excesses usually associated with that sphere. Musically, the group also embraces the early influences brought to bear on singer and leader Gary Ramon, particularly north-west England groups Echo And The Bunnymen, Teardrop Explodes and Joy Division. Eventually, encouraged by a professor at the college he was attending, he began to backtrack to the idealistic 60s psychedelic groups, whose adventurism he came to admire. Sundial, formed with friends Jake Honeywell and Craig Adrienne, became his effort to combine the best of these recordings with the guitar pyrotechnics of Jimi Hendrix, the noise sequences of the Jesus And Mary Chain and the spatial intelligence of the Krautrock bands. Several albums have ensued, mainly sold to a fanatical mail-order following, before the group achieved a recording contract proper with Beggars Banquet Records. Acid Yantra, its title inspired by a D.A. Levey poem, was rabidly consumed by the Sundial fan community as usual, and began to attract some positive mainstream critical praise for the group. Ramon also runs his own Acme (specialising in psych-rock) and Psi-Fi (specialising in Krautrock curiosities) record labels.
DISCOGRAPHY: Other Way Out (1990)***, Libertine (1994)***, Acid Yantra (Beggars Banquet 1996)***.

Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Copyright Muze UK Ltd. 1989 - 2004