Sun Araw: Ancient Romans

There’s a fine line between creating an ambient, sprawling tribute to classical antiquity and a soundtrack to the latest Civilization computer game. Sun Araw’s Cameron Stallones lazily strolls along that line on Ancient Romans, crafting the perfect atmosphere for his titular theme, and sometimes making interesting music in the process. Stallones gets props for sticking with the concept throughout: Each song on Ancient Romans finds a different way to recall the era, whether with expansive electric guitar, thudding bass, heavy synths, idle keyboard noodling, bongos, synthesized harps, a hodgepodge of trumpets, incoherently reverberated vocals, or wailed saxophones. It’s a goofy, disorganized mess, but Stallones swirls the noise together into a cohesive whole and never gets off-topic.