-=- SHGZ -=-
* Shoegaze * Indie * Post-Rock * Grunge * Dream Pop * Psych-Rock * Ethereal *
Artist..: Lanterns On The Lake
Album...: Beings
GENRE...: Indie
STYLE...: Indie Rock, Ethereal
YEAR....: 2015
LABEL...: Bella Union ENCODER..: FLAC 1.2.1 -8 -V
SOURCE..: CD BITRATE..: 752 kbps avg
TRACKS..: 10 SIZE.....: 225.06 MB
URL..: http://www.facebook.com/LanternsOnTheLake/
- TRACKLIST
1 Of Dust & Matter 5:00
2 I'll Stall Them 4:06
3 Faultlines 5:14
4 The Crawl 4:08
5 Send Me Home 2:26
6 Through The Cellar Door 2:56
7 Beings 6:26
8 Stepping Down 4:22
9 Stuck For An Outline 4:35
10 Inkblot 1:51
Total Playtime: 41:04
Following a couple more lineup changes but with the founding core of singer
Hazel Wilde, multi-instrumentalist Paul Gregory, and drummer Oliver
Ketteringham still intact, Lanterns on the Lake present Beings, their
absorbing third long-player. Written and recorded as a group in the band's
rehearsal space with Gregory again overseeing production, the album doesn't
mark a change in direction so much as an expansion; their signature
atmospheric despondence remains but with scaled-up textures for lusher
climaxes and, more to the point, starker contrasts. The loose and spacy
opener, "Of Dust & Matter," for instance, has a broad range of instruments
and effects, including much that is unidentifiable: what sound like processed
samples, sci-fi film-like murmurs, and eerie thumps alongside marching
keyboard chords, wailing electronics, full drums, and chiming electric
guitars. At times the spooky mΘlange falls away to reveal only piano tones,
guitar, and rueful vocals before building again. It's a particularly Siouxsie
Sioux-evoking track with lyrics about "creatures," "dust," and "a town void
of life." The solemn title track is similarly expansive and lustrous. While
most of the songs are more conventional structure-wise, the otherworldliness
permeates the album via weeping instrument timbres and lyrics like "I want to
feel human" and "In another lifetime I thought I saw you peering through the
cracks of age." Beings also offers the driving, poppier "Faultlines" and
stripped-down moments like the folkier "The Crawl." All in all another strong
outing from the Newcastle band, it dwells in a cloudy blend of dreams and
creeping nightmares, unsettling yet captivating.
*
There's something glorious about listening to an album which sounds coherent,
cohesive, in which all of the songs make sense individually and within the
context of the whole. Sure, there might be standout moments, but the deepest
satisfaction is derived from taking in the piece as a whole. Sadly, this is
all too rare in my experience, but at least with Beings, the new album from
Newcastle sextet Lanterns on the Lake, the latter part of 2015 has been
graced with one such artistic statement. If you're on the lookout for songs
to consume in a fit of musical gluttony, this album isn't for you. Instead
it's a succulent, sumptuous repast to be savoured.
Hungry yet?
Things begin with 'Of Dust and Matter', a spectral, piano-driven opener which
nods plaintively in the direction of the peerless Her Name is Calla. From
there, 'I'll Stall Them' slinks in on a bed of ambience and nicely placed
brass. The whole ambiance, particularly the vocal placement in the mix, calls
to mind the soundscapes which carried Daughter to ubiquity on the release of
their debut album. Lanterns on the Lake have reached the point where they
sound ready to make the jump on to similar echelons. The glorious dynamic
shifts in this song, as crescendos come and immediately fall away again, are
a thing to behold.
Other highlights here are 'Send Me Home', shorter but no less substantial, as
lead vocalist Hazel Wilde really comes to the fore. This track gives way to
'Through the Cellar Door', which asks ôare you one of us?ö as it explodes in
to the album's first truly aggressive, even explosive moment. Snare hits
punish as layers of guitar underpin a cinematic lead line. The effect is
exhilarating. That the band can change gears so effortlessly is a sign of
their maturity, musicality and, more than both of these, their complete
togetherness as an entity. As the title track moves glacially into view,
undulating purposefully through its verses before falling apart in to a
beautifully understated chorus, it feels like we who are listening have been
carried away from the humdrum of the everyday to another place entirely.
Isn't this what only the best music can do?
Then, as if almost just to be wilful for the sake of it, we are brought to
the place of 'Stepping Down' the album's most obviously
electronically-infused moment. Using an almost entirely different sonic
palette, it is testimony to the splendour of its composition that this track
fits perfectly in to the flow of the whole album. And this, ultimately, is
the point. Lanterns on the Lake are at a stage in the genesis of their band
that it would appear that almost anything is possible for them. The steps
they take in the months and years to come promise to be fascinating.
Listening to Beings though makes one thing abundantly clear: Lanterns on the
Lake are one of Britain's most crucial bands of the present moment.
*
Two years since Until the Colours Run debuted, U.K.-based quartet Lanterns on
the Lake returns with their third full-length album. Much like its
predecessor, Beings opens with lead-singer Hazel Wilde's haunting vocal work,
this time on "Of Dust & Matter." Such a song title might come across as
grandiose, but it's befitting of the record, which has the difficult to
describe trait of sounding like a self-contained epic. The songs that
comprise it are poignant, simultaneously sweeping and extremely intimate, and
filled with transportive powers. Wilde's ethereal lead vocals, coupled with
Paul Gregory, Oliver Ketteringham, and Bob Allan's guitar, drums and piano,
and bass, respectively, impart the fugueùlike sensation of waking fromùor
entering-a walking dream.
Throughout the 10-track, 42-minute album, Wilde's voice consistently
reverberates as though she were right there in the room with you-even while
sending you a million miles away. "The Crawl" is a gorgeous, introspective
song not easily forgotten. Then, not much later, "Through the Cellar Door" is
a jolting return to Earth, as unexpected and unsettlingùthough in no way
discordantùas whatever might lie beyond its eponymous basement threshold.
Wilde sets the mic down during "Inkblot"ùthe only purely instrumental track
on the album-ùwhich familiarly recalls Explosions in the Sky (Lanterns on the
Lake has supported Explosions in the Sky on tour in the past). The four-piece
group developed the record in isolation, secluding themselves in a room in
Newcastle, Englandùand the effort paid off. The resulting album is one free
from distraction, an out-of-body journey best experienced alone, at least at
first. Put on your noise canceling headphones, sink into your most
comfortable chair, and immerse yourself in this beautiful, otherworldly
music.
-=- SHGZ -=-
P.S.
** Thanks ***
*** BCC FNT IPC SSR ***
*** For Knowing Where The Music Is At ***
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* NuHS we miss you! *
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