CURSE OF LONO

As I Fell SUBMARINE CAT 8/10 A sojourn in Joshua Tree inspires London-based band

Since recording promising 2017 debut album Severed with producer/player Oli Bayston, Felix Bechtolsheimer has expanded Curse Of Lono (named after the Hunter S Thompson novel) to a five-piece band, with striking results. An ominously rumbling bassline, concussive handclaps and serrated guitar licks erupt around Bechtolsheimer’s laconic baritone on opener “Valentine”, and As I Fell continues to gather force as it progresses, like an approaching storm over the California desert. With spectral soundscapes like “Kathleen” and “Tell Me About Your Love”, the tormented title song and widescreen closer “Leuven”, Curse Of Lono have conjured a seductive mise en scène whose charged atmosphere bears parallels to Emmylou Harris’s Wrecking Ball and U2’s The Joshua Tree.