Peaking Lights - Lucifer (Vinyl LP, CD)

Well our Ant wrote a bleedin' thesis on their last excursion. I'm not gonna attempt anything like that for 936's successor especially when this laptop I'm using/cursing is being such an utter spiteful bastard. I saw them in the alternately tattooed and slinky flesh the other day, these Peaking Lights from America, at a popular watering hole in the studenty area of Leeds village and they sounded, frankly,  lush as fuck. Their balmy, gentle dubby dream-pop drove me into a blissed stupor, no doubt assisted by the copious amount of alcohol I threw down my throat (and down my clothes) and I stood there agape at the fella's antiquated junkshop hardware which included lots of wires, not to mention a twin tape deck. Talk about the 80s, it looked like he'd gone back in time and ram-raided 80's-R-US. Then there's the willowy swaying hippy chick on vox who normally resides with him in their backwoods love shack where they make babies and the coolest understated mellow gems you could wish for. Neither of them were really stage-friendly creatures but it mattered not one iota.

The rougher, grainy, murky edges are getting smoothed out with each subsequent release to my ears, meaning either they're getting better at this music production game or the shady man from Domino is blagging their faces off for a radio hit. Of which there's an entire album worth here, albeit the kinda "hits" they play on Rainbow Rasta Radio in a baking shanty town on Mars. This is still a resoundingly DIY work regardless of the higher fidelity. I've SEEN the shit he plays this music on, you could probably find it in a skip in Glasgow. You also have to pick the right time for this album, It ain't quite as "immediate" as before (possibly as their distinctive sound is a more familiar one nowadays) and it may sink on a shit rainy, stressed-out day whereas '936' apparently melted absolutely everything into oblivion from the opening grooves, 'Lucifer' is almost exclusively sunshine music, but works best when you're horizontal, then you realise all the finely sculpted, cascading, belching - not to mention dangerously seductive - detail springing out of the woodwork (check the gurgling morphed baby noises on 'Lo-Hi',- in lesser hands you'd probably feel a little nauseous but they fit like a glove in the context of this heavily loved-up and warm playful music! The kid is obviously a part of the band anyway yo!)

After literally about six plays I'm totally confident its rewards are as rich as ever despite the cleaner production, the little beautiful skanking touches and implicit sensual master strokes come gradually and increasingly with each listen until you're smothered in ecstatic, kaleidoscopic wonder and somehow caught in a grinning trance....then you snap your eyes open and exclaim "Fuck me I've not even had any drugs! Why do I feel like I've had three Es?" Then the sodding thing suddenly finishes and you feel like a big grey cloud has wandered into your living room. So then I pressed play.....and realised why Ant wore his fingers out last time. x