LIGHTNING DUST EVOLVES
POP HOOKS MAKE THEIR WAY INTO HAUNTING PSYCHEDELIC FOLK
SPECTRE LIGHTNING DUST | WESTERN VINYL
Vancouver-based duo Lightning Dust is comprised of musicians Amber Webber and Josh Wells, who both were longtime members of Black Mountain.
The duo released its self-titled debut album on Jagjaguwar in 2007, quickly establishing that its sound was in no way similar to the stoner-rock grooviness of its other band.
The best description of the Lightning Dust vibe was haunting psychedelic folk, driven by Webber’s potent pipes. Her voice can do so many things while always retaining elements of an oldtime bluegrass quaver with massive projection that could be compared with Alison Krauss singing Renaissance music. This is particularly true on the album closer 3am/100 Degrees. Up against stark instrumentation with loads of reverb, the sound is enticing.
Lightning Dust followed up its debut with Infinite Light (2009), which continued the style of its debut. For 2013’s Fantasy, the band added more contemporary electronic beats and loops giving the music more of a British-pop feel.
Tracks such as Mirror were almost gothic in their delivery.
Which isn’t to say that the new album, Spectre, is titled to indicate an even more vampirish direction. The record does retain the loops and soundscapes of Fantasy, but singles such as Devoted To bring in pop hooks and other orchestration that signal a next chapter for the duo.
Here are five things to know about Spectre, the band’s first new recording in six years:
1: FULL-TIME PROJECT
Webber and Wells come into this album with a renewed sense of purpose born out of leaving an established and successful band and reassessing priorities, both personal and creative. Webber spent 2018 exploring new career options only to arrive at the conclusion that art- and music-making are her “light” and that it’s more important than ever for women to be out there being creative and she is quoted in press materials as stating, “I truly feel that women, especially as we age, are under-represented. That was truly the driving force to creating this album.” This makes the opening track Devoted To seem most appropriate to kickoff the 10 new tunes.
2: MOOD-EVOKING PRODUCTION
Webber’s unique-sounding voice is, by its nature, capable of evoking all kinds of ghostly images and quality. Wells’s production throughout just serves to project that unique instrument further. Whether it’s the straight-ahead country tinged shuffle of Run Away or sparse bass-and-tom beat built up with piano on When it Rains, the vocals are always front and centre. This doesn’t mean there aren’t some ripping leads — Check Stephen Malkmus’s all-business guitaring in A Pretty Picture — and bright instrumental passages.
3: MORE
This might be the most tender ballad that the band has produced. Declaring there is more in this body than flesh/ I can feel it in your chest, Webber breathily sings over a solo piano like her heart is breaking. A distant accordion breathes out the final passages in 2:57 seconds of sweetness.
4: COMPETITIVE DEPRESSION
Under two minutes of paranoid synthesizer, electric piano and banging drums that is the most rocking track on Spectre, you can tell that this is going to be a highlight live. Destroyer’s Dan Bejar contributes vocals that blend in beautifully.
5: SPECTRE TOUR
Hear the new material (and the old) on Nov. 13 at 8 p.m. at the Fox Cabaret, 2321 Main St. Tickets: $15 at ticketweb.ca. After that, the band is off for an extended European tour where its music has always been well-received.
ALSO OUT THIS WEEK: ACID ARAB
JDID | CRAMMED DISCS
The second release from this Parisian duo of Guido Minisky and Hervé Carvalho, with help from assorted DJs and producers from assorted North African countries, is some of the coolest world groove being made anywhere. Equally at home making pulsating bass loops as blending in swirling pipes and percussion (Electrique Yarghol feat. Hasan Minawi) and making club-ready jams complete with quite commercial hooks. Tasty treats for those who like big beats.
NêHIYAWAK
NIPIY | ARTS & CRAFTS
This trio from Amiskawaciy (Edmonton) is comprised of Kris Harper (vocals, guitar); Marek Tyler (drums); and Matthew Cardinal (synths, bass). And have Nêhiyaw ancestry and craft both radioready U2-esque driving guitar rock (Copper, Ôtênaw and Tommasso) as well as more far-reaching soundscape pieces such as the opening and closing tunes both dedicated to kisiskâciwanisîpiy (North Saskatchewan River). More exciting Indigenous music to celebrate.
TEMPLES
HOT MOTION | ATO
The title track is one of the catchiest that these U.K. retro-psyche purveyors has penned and the leadoff single You’re Either on Something could have topped charts in the Madchester/Brit Pop era easily. Where that places Temples today is questionable. Either way, fuzz-toned-butpop songs such as The Howl or banging guitars of Step Down are fun. Only problem is, the not-as-good songs are really not as good.
Feb. 4, 2020 at Fox Cabaret, 2321 Main St. Tickets and info: $37.91 at ticketweb.ca
YUNGBLUD
THE UNDERRATED YOUTH EP | UNIVERSAL
Braindead! opens this sixsong set from this rising U.K. star. It sounds so much like Favourite Worst Nightmare-era Arctic Monkeys that they should be getting royalty checks. Then he’s off being a bummed out Brexit-era Brit declaring “parents ain’t always right” on the rap-pop Parents. This is the sort of expertly crafted electro-hop candy that gets in your ear and won’t leave. The title track leaves me thinking that there is no hope as it sounds like 21 Pilots in a summit with Blink-182. I guess it’s funny.