Sun Dial is the vehicle of guitarist and singer Gary Ramon, who started recording in the eighties as The Modern Art. He changed the name to Sun Dial when forming his live band. As Ramon’s cohorts came and went, Sun Dial’s style changed, yet it remained rooted in late sixties psychedelia and often focused on the guitar work. Many of the band’s indie label releases came as collectable limited editions and were re-released over the years; they also recorded and released multiple version of several songs.
The first Sun Dial album, “Other Way Out” (1990), copied the sound of the late sixties perfectly and is still celebrated as one of the best examples of neo-psychedelia. After that, Sun Dial recorded some simpler, harder, noisier tunes, which only saw a belated release on the Album “Return Journey” (1993). On the “Overspill EP” (1991) the band came up with dreamier sounds which connected them to the current indie trends. Shoegaze- and space rock-influences shaped the album “Reflecter” (1992), which also had a track based on a drumloop; Sun Dial further delved into electronics for the “Fazer EP” of the same year. They moved to Beggar’s Banquet and had their most commercial outing with “Libertine” (1993), built upon dance grooves and catchy rock riffs, yet not completely abondoning psychedelia. “Acid Yantra” (1995) was an attempt to return to the band’s roots, yet it lacked the outstanding tunes and underground charm of their early records. Gary Ramon brought Sun Dial to a halt but started releasing records again with a new line-up in 2002.
In 2010, they released a 20th anniversary 2-CD anthology, Processed For DNA, via Shrunken Head, their own imprint with Cherry Red, before returning with a new eponymous studio album.