HOME

REVIEWS

- RSS Feed

SoundsXP Presents

tba

On Our iPod

Weird Dreams - Choreography (album)

Crocodiles - Sunday (Psychic Conversation #9) 7”

The Hairs - I’ve Been Working Out 7”

King Creosote and Jon Hopkins - Third Swan single

Cate Le Bon - Cyrk (album)

Tashaki Miyaki - sings the Everly Brothers 7”

Antony Harding - The Birds Sing Goodnight To You And Me (album)

Veronica Falls - My Heart Beats 7”

Latest Forum Posts

Album Review

Lightning Dust
Infinite Light Jagjaguwar

Article written by Peter W - Oct 15, 2009

Lightning Dust

When they’re not grafting away at their space-rock day jobs in Black Mountain, Amber Webber & Joshua Wells are busy with a psychedelic show of their own. This, their second album, is a slightly dreamier affair than the duo’s debut, and definitely a lot less gloomy than their main employment.
The album’s opening third is incredibly strong; highlights include the punchy ‘I Know’ which resembles Handsome Furs with the volume turned (slightly) down, and ‘The Times’, a superb two-minute blast of bongo-laden blues.

Sadly, they can’t maintain these thrills and subsequently stray away from their hitherto disciplined, less-is-more template. Overdoing the synths in an attempt to pile on needless layers of “atmosphere”, they painfully stumble into blandness with the sub-Bat for Lashes, electro-dirge of ‘Never Seen’ that unfortunately seems to have been intended as the LP’s centrepiece. There’s also the rather cheesy (and awkward) duet ‘Honest Man’; it’s thankfully done & dusted in under three minutes but Wells should simply stay away from the microphone. On the subject of vocals, Webber’s quivering warble may not be to everyone’s taste but during the cracking little ‘History’, its fragility is undeniably effective come the tune’s drunken collapse into a “la-de-da” finale. This is also the highpoint of Infinite Light’s rather inferior second half; while the songs are invariably pleasant enough, they struggle to make much impact past the slick production.

On the whole it’s probably an album to sift, rather than sit, through but it’s still a frequently rewarding listen.

Links:
http://www.myspace.com/lightningdust