by The Mystery Lights
The Mystery Lights The Mystery Lights (PBS feature record)
Mystery Lights – Self-Titled.
This album is the first to be released on WICK Records, a new subsidiary of the good people at Daptone. The first single ‘Follow Me Home’ gives a clear picture of what you can expect – catchy 60’s garage and psych-rock with impossibly catchy hooks. Across 11 tracks there’s a strut and a swagger that seamlessly manages to pay homage to the golden age of garage without just trotting out a bunch of tired clichés. Importantly there’s some truly memorable songs on this self-titled debut.
There’s tracks about drinking with the Devil, having strangers in your bed and flowers in your hair – just in case you’re not certain where the Mystery Lights draw their inspiration. On top of that are layers of fuzz guitar and trippy organ, often panned hard left and right in true retro style. All of that adds up to a feel good album with enough grit to satisfy those who enjoy their music a little on the dirty side.
Immediately familiar and undeniably infectious the debut self-titled album from Mystery Lights would seem to be the perfect vehicle to announce the arrival of WICK Records.
PBS 106.7FM
Pantha Du Prince The Triad (Featured on The Breakfast Spread)
The Triad is the fifth album from German producer and sound artist Pantha Du Prince (Hendrik Weber). For more than a decade Weber has been releasing music that draws from house and minimal techno through to elements of Kraut-rock and even sonic installation. On The Triad we hear myriad stylistic, compositional and performance elements that have been featured variously in earlier releases.
In 2013 Weber released Elements of Light, a collaboration with The Bell Laboratory using a full carillon of tuned bells. On The Triad tuned percussion is again a core component of Pantha Du Prince’s audio palette, although here it’s difficult to distinguish what has been played and what has been sampled and processed. As has been the case previously Weber is again a willing collaborator and here he is joined variously by Joachim Schütz, Stephan Abry, Scott Mou, Bendik Hovik Kjeldsberg, Kassian Troyer, and Thilo Kuhn. The album’s title in fact reflects the approach to the creation of this record in which Weber worked in trios with his collaborators to develop each track on the album.
The result is a gorgeous album that intelligently balances the relationships and contrasts between digital and acoustic, organic and programmatic, ambient and rhythmic. Where Elements of Light was effectively a singular through-composed piece of work, The Triad might be considered a more conventional collection of discreet tracks. Utilizing so many identifiable components of his recent work however enables The Triad to hold together as a unified and glorious whole.
PBS 106.7FM
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