Peaking Lights

hey let's have a Peaking Lights thread

936 was one of my favorite records of 2011

on first listen the new one "Lucifer" is sounding super chill

love the new album cover too. very krautrock.

http://i1.sndcdn.com/artworks-000024809783-xm1fn2-crop.jpg

full album stream:
http://soundcloud.com/weirdworldrecordco/sets/peaking-lights-lucifer

really feeling this - came to 936 way late, think i prefer it to the new one

seems like the new one tilts a bit more toward burbling/bubbling/twinkling electronic textures, where 936 was mainly about big basslines and more explicit dub sounding stuff

I'm liking it though

I thought the last one was pretty decent, but I'm disappointed that the awesome cover doesn't seem to be translating to a much heavier krautrock vibe on the new one - at least not judging from the tracks I've heard.

def. not heavy but not all krautrock is heavy. it's more on the ambient electronic side.

I guess I didn't really mean "heavy", just that the two tracks I've heard didn't really read very krautrock at all.

DUDES

peaking lights lady is the lady from NUMBERS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqSmmsrZYw4

i don't know, this one might be even closer to straight dub than the last one, at least in terms of the rhythms & parts. it definitely has some big basslines. sounds great but kinda makes me want to listen to 936.

xp

they used to live a couple blocks away from me but i didn't really know it until they moved away. and i had dinner with some folks the other night who had a phone pic of PL playing in their garage, w/the baby in a sling.

DUDES

peaking lights lady is the lady from NUMBERS

DUDE, I did not know that.

Numbers were kinda irritating, they seemed like something I should like but I sold the one record of theirs I bought (the one with the yellow cover)

heh, that's how i felt about the entirety of the tigerbeat scene and the extended idm/glitch electropunk axis

i had a roommate and coworker (still coworker) who is a pretty white-bready dude from wisconsin, very cool but also kind of a norm if that makes sense. and i was all CHECK OUT THIS RAD BAND FROM WISCONSIN!!!!! and he was like UHHHHHHH and i feel dumb now because i should've realized they are hipster transplants from SF

love the new album cover too. very krautrock

krautrock w/ a spritz of chillwave

for some reason I thought Peaking Lights lived up in Seattle / Portland thereabouts, didn't know they're in Madison

I'm seeing them at Woodsist Fest in August. them and Pierced Arrows are the bands I'm most stoked about on the bill.

not in madison anymore, moved to l.a. iirc

haha well, there ya have it

perhaps you are thinking of mexican summer labelmates and fellow tripster power couple honey owens & adam forkner?

i've had the bassline from 'midnight in the valley of shadows' in my head for the last couple days

i have not heard peaking lights as far as i know but i will continue to hold the bias i have against them because i confuse them with pretty lights

also from wisconsin iirc?

non-peaking-lights-digging roommate was a big pretty lights fan.

936 was one of my favorite records of 2011

It was my FAVORITE record of 2011. full stop

pretty lights are def not from wisconsin, and are much worse. but i'm pretty sure that even the kids who love pretty lights don't listen to the records, they just go to the shows.

Peaking Lights dude's solo stuff as Faceplant mines a Zuckerzeit vibe. At least, it does on the split 12" with Bitchin Bajas.

i have not heard peaking lights as far as i know but i will continue to hold the bias i have against them because i confuse them with pretty lights

― they loooovin the crut (The Reverend), Thursday, June 14, 2012 10:41 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

don't think you'd like them

i liked 936, had a nice bullwackies vibe to it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH-9_ddFKk8

yeah, 936 was amazing. i didn't really hear it until it landed on a bunch of year end lists (including ilx's?). i dig the mixes they put out occasionally, too.

i love how the first keyboard tone in "Live Love" = the startup noise for macs

Listening to 936 just made me realise how completely my musical tastes have changed over the past 5 years. Like, 5 years ago, I would have been all over this record, I would have thought it was perfect. But now it's just strangely unsatisfying and I'm not sure exactly why.

Bitchin Bajas

Listening to 936 just made me realise how completely my musical tastes have changed over the past 5 years. Like, 5 years ago, I would have been all over this record, I would have thought it was perfect. But now it's just strangely unsatisfying and I'm not sure exactly why.

Huh? I love this record. What do you mean? These tunes are stuck in my head for days, makes me want to iie on the grass in the park and drink prosecco all afternoon.

Loved '936' and am loving this new one, too. Damn is it sounding perfect on a hott Friday afternoon...

936 was great great great. Took me a while to get into it, but once it clicked, I loved it.

Out of curiosity, Lex: I remember you not taking to the whole echo-ey productioin on 936 back when first encountering it in the EOY threads. Has your opinion changed about that?

i'm kinda w white chocolate on 936. nice sounds and vibes, always enjoy it when it's on, but it doesn't inspire much devotion or excitement in me. tunes don't stick in my head - nothing does, really. prefer the scruffier early stuff, tbh. still looking fwd to the new one.

lex?

nm, i see, couple days back

I think it's just me that's in the wrong headspace. I put it on and I just kept wishing that the songs were over so I could go and listen to something else. I think it might be the roughness and the indie-ness that is bothering me. But that might also be down to me being stuck in a weird obsessive groove where I only want to listen to one kind of music at the moment. And this just sounds like a dub-flavoured pot noodle compared to what my ears are craving. I should probably give it another chance when I've got out of this obsessive streak.

Lol it def is a dub-flavored pot noodle. Like I said, it didn't click right away for me. I had to listen to Belong and La Big Vic (and get some headphones) before I could fully appreciate it.

I've not been able to really get into 936 either. Might give it another go ahead of the new one but I know what you mean about strangely unsatisfying.

Hmm. I should investigate all this, it seems to be bringing together a lot of different ILX tribes.

I must say I'm intrigued too.

If I'm gonna listen to Dub flavoured pot noodle, I'm gonna listen to someone like Rhythm & Sound or King Midas Sound which are probably the equivalent of those 59p fake pot noodle they sell in dodgy cornershops which actually taste ~amazing~ and really much better than actual Pot Noodle?

Yeah I tried to listen to 936 again and got bored about four songs in. I really like the aesthetic they're trying to go for but there's an unresolved tension between 'hazy sunshine' and 'dark smokey room' that doesn't quite work for me. There's a kind of pale indie drone kid approach to it as well, neither the basslines nor the tunes really hold my attention.

Will still give the new one a go though.

See, 5 years ago "pale indie drone kid" was totally my aesthetic, and now I feel the shame of an ex smoker about it. :-/

Also a Dub record without adequate bass is like a pot noodle without salt. You have left out the single most important ingredient.

Bassline for "All the Sun That Shines" is great.

Don't see either of these Peaking Lights albums as being straight dub, so the lack of bass isn't an issue.

But the dubbiness is the thing that sets them apart from god knows how many other bands, in terms of making them interesting. Otherwise they'd just be x collection of chillwave signifiers all over again.

Interesting as a prospect I mean, unfortunately I'm not that interested in the music I've heard but I'm hearing enough there to want to keep trying.

yeah, i'm not a huge fan, but accusing 936 of being bad or fake dub misses the point. it's got some dub influence, but it isn't "dub music" per se (no more so than all those dub-influenced UK postpunk outfits). "indie drone" sounds pejorative but is fairly accurate. cousin to sun araw and emeralds. chillwave if we must.

It's not that it's fake dub or bad dub, it is just not dub.

I have finally, after 30 years or whatever, just reached the point where I've kinda listened to all the indie-drone I need in this lifetime.

I'm not criticising ppl who do like it! I'm just slightly disappointed I have no interest in this kind of music any more.

It's not you, Peaking Lights, it's me. Sorry. Bye.

Somehow this got me thinking earlier of David J and his Bauhaus basslines; one reason why the band (and Love and Rockets for that matter) works is precisely because he was such a dub freak and wasn't trying to adapt it to a sound, instead it was the bedrock of a sound. (See also in a parallel place/context John Taylor indulging his inner Bernard Edwards.)

See, David J and his Bauhaus basslines is one of two reasons that I have this susceptibility to dub that crept in at a subconscious level, before I was even aware of what it was. The other reason being Black Market Clash. And I actually often think that I like fake dub and mutant dub and dub snuck into other forms of music perhaps than I like real "authentic" dub (even though I like dub just fine, despite the best efforts of everyone from girlfriends to bosses to forbid me from listening to it.) It's just that I'm basically a poptimist and invariably like inauthentic mutated things better than authentic things.

But none of this has anything to do with Peaking Lights and I should really go start another thread for fake dub and blame Croydon.

Hahah I love how Croydon just exists as a punchline in English culture from what I can tell.

"This is Zaphod Beeblebrox from Betelgeuse 5, not bloody Martin Smith from Croydon!"

No, Croydon exists as a place I work in now. And for lunch I always get these super-amazing pumkin curry roti in this Trinidadian cafe that plays lots of reggae and dub while I'm waiting, and by the time I get back to the office, I am full of pumpkin, but am consumed with a hunger for more bass. And now there is not enough bass in the world for me.

Following up on contenderizer's comparison to Sun Araw, I'd totally recommend the thing that SA did with the Congos if you're looking for some very wonky sounding dub psych.

To be honest, I think the first time I heard Sun Araw was the moment I realised I didn't really like "psychedelic" music any more.

We should have a fake dub thread.

19. Peaking Lights — 936 (514 points, 17 votes)

voted for both of these. i feel like i have a lot of 'thoughts' about 936 in particular, kinda weirded out by how over the course of the year 'hey sparrow' has gone from having one mislabeled youtbue version of postcollegiate beardos on a rope bridge to having a legit video gorgeously shot that does the whole aping wes anderson aping french new wave thing. (its still a rad video tho gr8080 if yr readddding this) but also the perverse and wonderful remix album of '936' has kinda supplanted it in my memory so its dancier and droning and dense but maybe not

― the parable is the parable of the (Lamp), Thursday, February 2, 2012 8:21 PM (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

want to hear your 'thoughts' on 936, dude

― flopson, Thursday, February 2, 2012 8:24 PM (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha well its mostly that i think its really successful example of the sort of record lots of people have been making where it takes a bunch of sounds and themes and preoccupations that have been percolating in the underground and makes a conscious decision to incorporate these into a more rigorous/approachable song-based structure. like theres still a lot of murk and dissonance but like 'tiger eyes' is so much more propulsive and catchy than its other nnf ancestors yknow?

i mean if you listen to their earlier cassettes its really ambient, textural, dissonant. i really like that stuff but its interesting to see how much more effective the tracks on '936' are at communicating this mood of uncertainty and yearning compared to the earlier, more formless 'tracks'. i mean its not news that a band moves towards the msntrm as it 'matures' but it also kinda is?

― the parable is the parable of the (Lamp), Thursday, February 2, 2012 8:50 PM (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think it's the best not not fun release ever--well i haven't heard all of them, but at the very least the best in the series of bleak, monotone female-fronted mellow psych projects (us girls, pocahaunted, zola jeez, la vamp, my estrogeneration comp etc.)

despite being a somewhat marginal sound (although more broad indie acts like vivian/dum dum girls definitely overlap aesthetically) i really felt like i was rooting for these groups because i consider the style to be one of the few that feel very uniquely contemporary. but it's also one that has, until now, never produced a masterpiece, at least in full length form.

like theres still a lot of murk and dissonance but like 'tiger eyes' is so much more propulsive and catchy than its other nnf ancestors yknow?

i know! i think there's an important caveat here though. there's a smallness to this microgenre that is at the centre of what's really unique about it, both in terms of production and performance: it's like the opposite of blaring horn arrangements and loud, confident singing, more about an "uncertainty and yearning" and hesitance--that i'm glad that the breakthrough album preserved. i think the reason it's such a relief is because it had been tempting to conclude that those were its weaknesses

― flopson, Thursday, February 2, 2012 9:16 PM (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i really felt like i was rooting for these groups because i consider the style to be one of the few that feel very uniquely contemporary

yes, totally! although i think its... telling that the approach a lot of these labels/artists have taken has been p widely appropriated throughout 'indie'.

yr post is really good but i wanted to add that i think the increased interest in dance and more purely 'electronic' styles was a way for these groups to reconcile the production/performance ideal w/a more song-based approach

― the parable is the parable of the (Lamp), Thursday, February 2, 2012 9:33 PM (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

from ILM's Top 77 ALBUMS of 2011

guess i'll check out that congos thing but i find sun araw pretty irritating

The Congos/Sun Araw album is excellent, I probably like it as much as 936 (though it's not like they're super super similar).

I like the Sun Araw/Congos thing, but it barely has any tunes on it. 936 is pretty poppy in parts!

I dont like the sun araw congos thing and I haven't really heard any sun araw recorded material, never felt the need to, but I've seen them play a zillion times and I love their music 2 death

their current lineup with stallones, that noise dude, and that gorgeous bootleg geneva jacuzzi on bass is p incredible

can't really understand the comparison to peaking lights who are boring as fuck live, and not too talented or whatever, I don't think they have much to offer the world idk

Cameron's also a real friendly guy every time I've chatted with him, so I regard his success and Ged's with happy delight.

i don't find the sun araw comparisons particularly relevant, not any more so than any number of drone / drift stuff on related labels

ancient romans is much better than the condos thing by the way

is there a frkwys thread?

I guess the comparison is simply that they're both part of the same scene (both were on NNF at some point right?) and both are making some sort of warped lo-fi dub-influenced music. Peaking Lights are a lot airier and cleaner though, Sun Araw sounds like someone trying to swim through a vat of glue.

This is a frkwys-friendly thread btw (n.b. v heavy on the youtubes and might kill yr browser):

rolling off to the forest 2012

Didn't Cameron also play a big part in the 2010 Pocahaunted album, Make it Real? I love that one lots, too.

man i was really disappointed that pocahaunted broke up after they became a full band that was also a psychedelic esg

peaking lights >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> studio

Peaking Lights v Studio isn't a comparison that makes much sense to me, whereas I think Peaking Lights and Araw/Congos are more similar to each other than they are to most other things.

Wait Pocahaunted broke up?

peaking lights >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> studio

I love Peaking Lights, but this is insane.

I like the Sun Araw/Congos thing, but it barely has any tunes on it

yeah agree with this, I like it ok but it is mainly "chants" and not "songs"

I like the eerie Ege Bamyasi-in-surround-sound vibe of the Congos release.

Wait Pocahaunted broke up?

yeah, or at least last time i checked

http://pitchfork.com/news/39792-pocahaunted-call-it-a-day/

Aw ;_;

Make It Real has sort of an Ege Bamyasi thing going on; I wonder if Sun Araw/Congos sounds much like that...

Tbh I'm beginning to suspect that I need to buy ten copies of each (Make It Real. 936, Frkwys) & just play with them in my bathtub or something

peaking lights >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> studio

loooooool. peaking lights are cool and all but come the eff on

i take this as a sign that studio is doing extremely well in the edm poll and late great is not pleased

moonship trolling to baja

nah

i just don't think it sounds like "dub" unless you mean it in the sense of something like compass point

and then you've got that washed out pop thing over it, it just reminds of studio, but without the european male privilege

maybe my ears are broken

No that makes sense to me, or it does when listening to 'West Side' at least. But I think with Studio that dub influence is filtered through post-punk. I don't get the same sense they were listening to loads of dub and decided to incorporate that sensibility straight into their sound, which I do with Peaking Lights.

And there are things like shoegaze and drone and so forth that are in there in Peaking Lights music that you don't really get with Studio. And Studio were better.

studio's music was better, peaking lights' singer is better

Yeah, but Studio used their singer better. And less often.

Out of curiosity, Lex: I remember you not taking to the whole echo-ey productioin on 936 back when first encountering it in the EOY threads. Has your opinion changed about that?

― robert mcnamara in reverse (loves laboured breathing), Saturday, June 16, 2012 2:06 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i don't remember this! maybe i wasn't in the right frame of mind then. i only like it in a low-key background music kind of way, though in practice this means i do listen to it quite a bit.

i only like it in a low-key background music kind of way, though in practice this means i do listen to it quite a bit.

haha I get this. 936 and the new Actress album were my go-to albums both for recent hospitalisation and subsequent beach-based recovery, and I love them in the same about-to-fall-asleep kinda way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbTqXoqmPvg

I think I understand the Studio comparisons now that I've gotten around to listening to this (massive) Adrian Sherwood remix.

Did I say (massive) cos I actually meant MASSIVE

Holy god, I could use a whole album of that.

bits of this remind me of this

http://www.discogs.com/Holger-Czukay-Jah-Wobble-Jaki-Liebezeit-Full-Circle/release/471559

if you're into peaking lights you'll prob like the full circle record a lot

And there are things like shoegaze and drone and so forth that are in there in Peaking Lights music that you don't really get with Studio

The other thing in there which I'm kind of neutral about is a really 80s anorak indie sound - the echoey surf guitar, the somewhat dead-sounding drums and the sing-song Girls In The Garage vocals make me think of bands like the Beat Happening etc. Feels like Calvin Johnson has recorded it in a damp cold cave somewhere.

^^^ Think that's the element that I find offputting. I'd like them to open out and become more expansive, more melodic, but it's definitely grounded in a kind of 80s indie sensibility that deadens it all for me.

imo 936 is melodic and expansive, maybe not in the way you mean though? feel like it's packed with hooks and contains so much space & dynamic

while digging back into this band recently i happened upon a stream of the rest of that 936 remixes record (from which the Adrian Sherwood posted above is taken):

http://soundcloud.com/weirdworldrecordco/sets/peaking-lights-936-remixes/

i should add, i had never listened to this before yesterday but it's pretty great. a nice companion piece to the album

seems like i'm perceiving a US/UK divide here

The other thing in there which I'm kind of neutral about is a really 80s anorak indie sound - the echoey surf guitar, the somewhat dead-sounding drums and the sing-song Girls In The Garage vocals make me think of bands like the Beat Happening etc. Feels like Calvin Johnson has recorded it in a damp cold cave somewhere.

i used to eat this shit up but for some reason i'm not feeling it in this context. it's not like calvin johnson didn't experiment heavily with dub or w/e either, it's not a novel or new or unwelcome combo (certainly far better than dub narcotic) but i'm def siding with the UK'ers on the issue

wish lames would stick to listening to 'uk funky' or w/e garbage

smh

936 was one of my favorite albums last year too but i think i would've liked it more without that surf guitar component. and i feel like i'm usually pretty sympathetic to anorak indie moves actually

wish lames would stick to listening to 'uk funky' or w/e garbage

― Lamp, Monday, 18 June 2012 11:37 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hey I love 936.

New one's up on Spotify now and I'm actually enjoying it quite a bit. Definitely a lot less C86 than 936 was. Reminding me a bit of an iced bun at the moment. You that white sugary translucence that the glaze has? Also the soft doughy chassis it's sat on... sweet and airy and somewhat bland comfort food basically.

Up to track four so far and noticing how each track takes on a distinct style while maintaining the same sort of palette throughout. Hard not to play spot the influence with it, so here goes - there's a Steve Reich one, then a Terry Riley/VU/Spacemen-3-in-gospel-mode one, track three very Cluster-ish but makes me think of Carly Simon's Why too, track four is a pretty nice dub one. Just reading their tweets and it looks like they've been hanging out with John Talabot - could be some more nice remixes in the pipeline...

Track five is kind of a glazed donut Tom Tom Club.

If you think I'm working towards a chouxgaze punchline here, you're probably not wrong.

God I'm fucking hungry now.

I liked the backing on the first couple of songs on Lucifer but the album became kind of a chore after that. Her vocals are kind of flat and affectless and the vocal melodies really basic and dull (you shouldn't sound bored while singing "beautiful son").

Also all the songs are kinda long considering they neither build up nor go anywhere much. Think I'm about to give up on trying to like Peaking Lights.

i'm aghast that anyone would mention c86 or calvin johnson in reference to this band.

Yeah, I don't hear C86 or Calvin Johnson. I hear more like mid to late 90s Kranky bands. Which is fine but, it's just mystifying to me to see people who would never in a million years put on a Jessamine or a Windy & Carl record - in fact would probably turn their noses up at such a thing - going on about how this is so great. IDGI.

But I'm doing that thing I shout at other people for doing where I'm going all over a thread just be a hater, expressing mystification that anyone could like a record.

The production is just so terrible, so ragged sounding. The guitars are really tinny and the drums just go "splat" and it sounds kinda hollow - and not even hollow in a good, booming sort of way, just hollow in a "this wasn't mastered properly" kinda way.

But I'm doing that thing I shout at other people for doing where I'm going all over a thread just be a hater, expressing mystification that anyone could like a record.

it's ok, i did the same thing with the new beach boys single. but that really was embarrassing stuff

this, on the other hand, is pretty great, but it doesn't surprise me that people wouldn't really get it. i'm not sure it really rewards "deep listening" or anything, but i'm not sure they're trying to, either.

band is just way 2 chill for yall

WCC provides strawmanning masterclass

i'm aghast that anyone would mention c86 or calvin johnson in reference to this band.

Well it's only one element I'm hearing among many - specifically on 936 (I don't really know their earlier stuff) - and it's mainly cos of the flat soggy cardboard production on it. Just compare that album with how alive that Adrian Sherwood mix sounds.

i'm aghast, i tell you! aghast!

Lo Hi is very redolent of Maria Minerva eh?

only uk wankers rep adrian sherwood!!

Even Adrian Sherwood couldn't save it for me.

the remixes are great, check the Ital one

Due to popular demand, Peaking Lights have made all 5 installments in their amazing + revelatory Lucifer mixtape series available for free download as part of today’s takeover. This should cover any and all of your pool-party soundtrack needs for the rest of the summer. Grab them all after the jump…

http://www.gorillavsbear.net/2012/06/19/mp3-download-peaking-lights-lucifer-mixtape-series/

what if i'm having more than 5 pool-parteez, then what

who am i kidding, i'm not having any pool parties :-/

Beautiful Son is easily one of the best tracks I have heard this year. I liked 936 but am actually loving this so far.

I dispute that the son can actually be that beautiful, she doesn't sound that enthused.

Yeah, I don't hear C86 or Calvin Johnson. I hear more like mid to late 90s Kranky bands. Which is fine but, it's just mystifying to me to see people who would never in a million years put on a Jessamine or a Windy & Carl record - in fact would probably turn their noses up at such a thing - going on about how this is so great. IDGI.

Like this band just fine but this is completely otm

man like i dont even know wtf a jessamine or a windy & carl record is--how can i turn my nose at it!

I like mid-to-late-90s Kranky just fine including Jessamine, but that's not what I get out of Peaking Lights like at all

I think people not being fans of 90s US post-rock but being fans of Peaking Lights is generational more than anything - some of that stuff is nearly 20 years old.

ok so the calvin johnson thing is a stretch, but (again) he has fucked w/dub sounds before and it turned out terribly but i think that's where the namedrop makes sense (dub narcotic soundsystem is terrible imo lol). comparing this 90s kranky on the other hand is just wacky

and why would you assume fans of peaking lights would never in a million years listen to 90s kranky? ime the nnf/kranky audiences share a lot of overlap even if they are mining vastly different territory.

this is why i don't post to indie threads, too many people making assumptions about the music having the wrong kind of fans, too much insider-ish knowledge about this sub genre or that subject

guess i'll just go back to the dance threads...

I'm so totally a Jessamine/Windy & Carl fan. I mentioned Belong upthread: wtf else do you want? Ppl in this thread ned to check out "faintin in the presence of the Lord" from this year's Windy and Carl album, on Spotify. Total bliss drone epic.

Early days yet but so far Lucifer feels less special than 936 (which was my #2 album of last year). Maybe it's just a lessened feeling of novelty after 12 months of dubby accessible-but-avant albums or maybe there's less conviction in the power of atmospherics and groove this time round and PL have tried to flesh out the instrumentation and composition with the end result that it all sounds less singular, more conventional. Still it's a good album imo, I'll spend more time with it and I'll probably change my mind soon enough.

do you know what this sounds like? insides. a less dreamy insides w/ some artificial reggae-ish vibes ala ze records. in fact, a few songs (live love, dream beat) bite their sound so hard that could almost be mistaken for euphoria tracks with more decent production. anyway i'm not crazy about this record, but i guess it's okay as background music.

I would probably sooner compare to a late 90s Pram with artificial reggae-ish vibes replacing artificial jazz-ish vibes.

But at any rate i don't really see this as being about US vs UK aesthetics.

i'm just assuming people who are calling fake dub and comparing it to nonsense are not actually familiar with dub

I would not be surprised if someone who liked Windy & Carl or Stars of the Lid liked this record, but, like, the last time I tried to sneak Jessamine into a DJ set when Lex was in the room, he basically ran away holding his ears. ;-)

The problem w this record isn't that it is or isn't post-dub or post-rock it's just that I can find nothing otherwise engaging about it.

I would not be surprised if someone who liked Windy & Carl or Stars of the Lid liked this record, but, like, the last time I tried to sneak Jessamine into a DJ set when Lex was in the room, he basically ran away holding his ears. ;-)

If you're using Lex's reactions as a proxy for the reactions of any group of people larger than 1 (Lex himself) you're on a hiding to nothing IMO.

It's just weird to me when a record is portrayed as such a smorgasbord of signifiers I really love(d) - 90s Kranky! Drone/spacerock! Fake dub! The electronic end of Kosmische / Krautrock!

And it has a bunch of ppl whose tastes I often appreciate (Lex, Tim F, NickB) repping it.

And I listen to the record, which I should be all over, and it's just so... nothingy

The conclusion I can draw is either that my tastes have changed so much I can't relate to it anymore. Or it's not a good record, it's empty signifiers without content. I was of the former opinion entirely until DC (another person whose tastes I usually trust) pops in and articulates what I dislike about it.

If you want you go from that to "drawing conclusions about its listeners" rather than "trying to draw conclusions about mine own taste and the tastes of a group of ppl I know well" then TBH that's strawmanning.

I wish I could make the little open circle go from this thread so I stop clicking it. But unfortunately it raises questions (what is fake dub as opposed to "real" dub?) that I've been listening around for a couple of weeks. And sorry Nick but your thread asked that in the format of a list and I hate list threads.

The conclusion I can draw is either that my tastes have changed so much I can't relate to it anymore. Or it's not a good record, it's empty signifiers without content. I was of the former opinion entirely until DC (another person whose tastes I usually trust) pops in and articulates what I dislike about it.

I tend to think this kind of thing is a bit of both - i.e. as our tastes change our attitude towards signfifiers as being empty or full also change (strictly speaking I think the idea of a signifier/content divide is something that exists in our minds only, though it's no less "real" for that). And they can go in the reverse direction too (i.e. stuff we dismissed as empty can begin to seem full).

It's sort of like a nose looking great front-on but awful on profile. Is the nose therefore good-looking or bad-looking? It depends...

In that sense your and Matt's criticisms definitely make sense to me even though I'm coming to this record from a front-on angle.

I thought that "turn their noses up" comment was such an obvious comedy dig at Lex and his comedy indie hating ways that it didn't even need to be qualified as such. But I guess I should never take that for granted on ILM any more. I apologise to anyone I offended by it.

i'm just assuming people who are calling fake dub and comparing it to nonsense are not actually familiar with dub

This is funny cos I'm pretty sure most people posting on this thread have heard more King Tubby albums than you have propeller caps in yr closet.

I started another thread for the genre purists vs genre tourists question but I guess I didn't ask it in a v good way, because I was trying to get past ideas of fake vs real in specific genres I.E. dub or whatever

When a "genre fanatic" reaches the end of their genre

It isn't fake dub, but there's definitely a dub influence in there (on 936 more than the new one admittedly), just like there's a shoegaze influence in there, but I wouldn't call it fake shoegaze either.

Mostly it made me sad there'll be no new Air France material.

I mean, I get it WCC. I'm a p huge neo-acid rock/space-rock head, and there was tons of stuff last year that I loved (Cosmic Dead, Hills, AMT, Wooden Shjips, Seven that Spells) but there was a lot of stuff in that vein that I didn't feel either, stuff like Causa Sui, Cave, Mazes. Stuff a lot of people were repping for. It felt empty, like you say. I'm still somewhat suspicious of fans of Causa Sui's Pewt'r Sessions on here as being unthinking genre completists or nation-of-origin fetishists. But really it's just down to me: not even that I'm through with that genre (clearly not), but that just not everything can be available to me.

It isn't fake dub, but there's definitely a dub influence in there...

― Matt DC, Wednesday, June 20, 2012 2:15 AM (15 hours ago)

yup, i was saying the same thing upthread. there's a huge difference between being influenced by something, even in an obvious/direct way, and becoming a "fake" version of it. like, are the funky, fuzzed-out approximations of western psychedelic music that cropped up around the world in the late 60s and 70s all "fake acid rock"? i don't think so. they're just local variations on sounds that were voguish at that moment.

honestly, i'm only inclined to think of music as "fake" when it's a tediously exacting but oddly denatured copy, especially when something crucial seems to have been lost in translation.

my first listen gives me the feeling that it may be better than '936'. the problem is still the fact that dunnis' deadpan-sweet vocals are way too upfront, leaving most of their tracks in a grey area between the dubby/pysch excursions and "pop" friendliness that really doesn't draw me into total immersion (or something like that...).

that's why in that indecision i prefer something like 'LO-HI' or 'Cosmic Tides' to the singalong of 'Love Live' (those kinda songs that veer too close to high places territory), if only because it takes the focus away from the vocals - like they're not trying too hard to find a song among the jam-like feel, leaving it to the sonic elements to take center stage.

then again, my favourite thing from them is still 'two songs for ceremony', so it must be my problem.

Adoring Lucifer, more than 936 even I think. So airy!

this record is a lot more complete than the other one, more groovy and deeper, but i can imagine listening to it a lot more too. really enjoying it.

LO HI is really good.

it's great for summer. I like it a lot.

Adoring Lucifer, more than 936 even I think. So airy!

^^^ this is pretty much where I'm at

top tracks for me are Dream Beat and Beautiful Son

Yah this is still really great for me. I get cock chirea's Insides comparison too now - the melodies on Lucifer are so bright yet frail, not in the sense of being weak, but in the sense of being cast so delicately, like glistening spiderwebs.

love this.

One Dove meets Velvet Underground uptown.

still love these albums. their live show, not so much. just not enough going on onstage. almost all of the music is on tape and the guy does some dubby fx on it while the woman sings but it wasn't really much to watch. their set did build some momentum as it went along through sheer low-end bass rattle but I dunno. not that great.

really liking this new album, kind of a tropical Broadcast vibe, to give a very shallow first impression. Something about the dubbiness of the first one was a bit oppressive over the course of the album, but this is a lot more spacious while also having a very distinct atmosphere.

by 'first one' I inaccurately mean 936, I haven't heard the stuff before that.

http://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/15184/1/peaking-lights-lucifer-in-dub

Lucifer in Dub is streaming here now, I'm really liking it so far.

I have difficulty parsing this music as dub in any way. I find the tag hugely confusing. Just sounds like 4ad on a boom box. Just cos the midrange gets turned down on the bassline doesn't automatically make it dub.

echo, delay, note choices, rhythmic structure? i mean it's not joe gibbs but pretty clearly & heavily influenced by classic dub.

I really can't get into peaking lights

Like many in this thread I like the description of Peaking Lights more than the result.

No I still don't hear it. The rhythms are not dubby. The echoes are not dubby. They're just rhythms and echoes like in any modern music. For me, dub is as much about the groove as the sonic signfiers - the skipping, forward motion and the way the way the bass wraps around the beat; the syncopation and emphasis on the offbeat. These rhythms are played in a very straight beat-oriented style same as rock and techno. The echoes are just shoegazey washes of reverb as opposed to 3/4 delays.
This sounds like the Cocteaus with a more prominent bassline and lower production standards.
It's not that I don't like it - it's nice enough in its way. And of course you can take elements of a style (like dub) and alter it to fit a different aesthetic or style. But when people talk about Peaking Lights in this 'oh they're like dub mixed with Ze records and post-rock' this is not what I am expecting at all.

^uh sorry, iPhone

The rhythms are not dubby.

Yes they are.

The echoes are not dubby

Yes they are.

Dub doesn't have to be anything and doesn't have to be the thing you wanted or expected it to be, thankfully. It can be a shoegazy album with effects (not that i think this record is merely that). Saying that it sounds more like the Cocteaus than like a dub album does make me wonder if you have ears though.

What? But that's like saying you don't have to be able to sit in a chair for it to be a chair. If I played you a Blur song and told you it was techno and then you said it wasn't techno, by this rationale I could say 'techno doesn't have to be the thing you want it to be'.

dl i think you're being overly prescriptive, something can be dubby or dub-influenced without having much in the way of roots reggae signifiers. that said i think PL have plenty in the way of roots reggae signifiers (organ chords and percussion on the upbeats a lot of the time, 8th note heavy reggae-ish basslines, etc)

not sure if you (DL) are saying this after listening to the stream of the new one but it has a few tracks where the rhythms get fucked about w/ and are way less 'straight' than on Lucifer

well DL Dunis is merely putting this out as a dubbier version of her recent record which is what this is. You're judging it against a claim that she hasn't even made for it.

FWIW i find it a bit exhausting to listen to although a couple of the incarnations seem better, on first listen, than the straight versions.

Jordan otm. I wouldn't ever call Peaking Lights "dub", but I would definitely say that they are heavily influenced by dub and that is made pretty obvious by the music.

I don't see how Peaking Lights' use of the word "dub" is in any way more controversial than a billion artists before them - early Seefeel strikes me as being a good point of comparison in this regard.

I'm listening to this now, Live Love as it happens, and seriously, these rhythms are no more dubby than anything else with a drum machine track and a bassline on it. In fact the beats land in a very grid-like way. I just don't see how this has any more of a dub influence than anything else with the odd phaser or echo effect thrown in. I don't think the note choices are particularly of classic dub, and besides the basslines are played really quite fast. If there's any sort of West Indian influence it would be something like early-mid '90s Bim Sherman type stuff which is more digital dancehall. Cosmic Tides, now yeah I guess the bassline is kind of dubby. But shit, it's a very plain and staid impression of dub. I can't help feeling it misses much of the point. But that's my opinion I guess.
I'll grant you the cocteau's comparison is tenuous though - it's more to do with the use of drum machines and dreamy female vox.

Fwiw I'm talking about lucifer

That was a few xposts.

936 was much more overtly dub influenced so if you've heard that one first it's easier to hear the bits of it that are still there in Lucifer

check out the new one linked above (the, uh, dub versions) or 936

xp

seefeel use the dub to achieve a kind of stasis, though. this seems a bit manic but that's a fairly typical form of dub too. it's actually fairly close to the mad professor's take on protection but without the production chops imo. this is a bit headachy for me.

but "no protection" is too.

a bit headachy, i mean.

Dunis is merely putting this out as a dubbier version of her recent record which is what this is

according to the press bumph the dub edits were Coyes' work - not sure if she had any further involvement

Xpost Well... I guess it's hard to separate dub signifiers from reggae signifiers anyway(for me at least). I always found dubstep to be a ponderous term because, despite the deep basslines an echoes, I couldn't really equate it with dub as far as my view of it went, if you see what I mean. As I say, dub for me in it's most vital sense is as much about the ebb and flow and 'feel' as it is about the rumbling bass and echoes because the latter two elements are pretty much ubiquitous throughout contemporary music anyway.

I def wanna check out the dub versions of these.

see i think what you like is actually reggae

Never a truer word said ;-)

But i can hear the dub influence in, for example Primal Scream's Vanishing Point and a lot of Andrew Weatherall's work, and little of that has much to do with reggae on an explicit level

fwiw i don't like peaking lights as much as i think i could and the poor (imo) production values are the barrier. even in those podcasts she put out, 6 hours of mixes (i use the word loosely) some amazing track selections but woeful sequencing & jarring segues. that was obviously what she was going for though, for some reason.

The word "dub" was also used in the 1980s for instrumental versions of vocal club tracks. A lot of these "dubs" weren't really all that "dubby".

it's 'he' that does all those mixes iirc

ah ok.

lol dog latin how do you feel about the term 'dub techno'?

confused because it means different things to different people. are we talking, like, Basic Channel or Dreadzone or what?

usually people mean dreadzone, when they talk about dub techno yes.

who are basic channel, btw?

how'd you get to be so smart, ronan?

http://rateyourmusic.com/genre/Dub+Techno/

more like dreadfulzone amirite

this is great! i didn't realize it was mastered by sonic boom before, but that makes a lot of sense.

finally checked out Lucifer In Dub. not really any reason to listen to it instead of just putting on Lucifer imo.

new one kinda sux :-(

sounds like tom tom club, sort of, just not good

huh ... I do think Breakdown sounds like Tom Tom Club but in a good way ... haven't heard the whole record

having a hard time getting through this. i feel like if you have a singer who is, let's say, 'not conventionally good', you have to take a lot more care to flatter them. the vocals sound uncomfortably exposed here since the music is so much more stripped down.

musically it sounds like record collector late '70s/early '80s electro funk to me, which is cool i guess, but not nearly as appealing to me as 936-style diy dub.

i read the tom tom club comments and got really excited for a second because i mistakenly thought i had the grouper thread open instead of the peaking lights thread

Breakdown stands heads and shoulders above the rest of this, which is nice enough but not brilliant and the vocals are definitely much more of an issue here.

this record by some labelmates of mine captures a similar feeling to early PL, imo (also happen to be a married duo): https://hushhushrecords.bandcamp.com/album/secret-angles

Not that we really need anymore proof that the NME are utterly useless but this review shows just how little they even try anymore.

http://www.nme.com/reviews/peaking-lights/15687

That cannot be a review of the same record I've listened to.

The first line made me smile.

I really wanted to like this record :-/

is there something obvious I'm missing about that review that makes it bad enough to be highlighted for scorn? just reads like a completely standard downpager to me

Most obviously, the reviewer is totally unaware that they made an album in between 936 and this one.

Yeah that's basically why I thought it was such a half arsed review. When you're writing a review that is so short surely checking your facts would be a must.

lol gotcha

need to give the new one some proper attention, all I took in from a couple of spins thus far was that it sounds much more polished

It pains me to say things like this, because I really like this band, but this new one isn't for me at all. I'll still buy the next one, but, err, three tries with this and I think I dislike it more each time. That "telephone call from space" song is awful. Why do smart people write lyrics like this??

I feel like the Lucifer in Dub EP might be their best work. Really plays to their strengths (ie not songwriting/vocals although I enjoy them in spots).

New Peaking Lights

https://soundcloud.com/peakinglights/everytime-i-see-the-light

Can we all collectively listen to this new album and not talk and just glance at each other and smile from time to time? Yeah.

is it good?

Very. I didn't like Cosmic Logic very much, and this fr Le like a partial course correction. It retains the technicolor pop feel but i's much spacier. I suppose the best comparison point is their remix of Young Galaxy's "Pretty Boy" - extended dub remixes of pop songs that don't exist in original form.

Pursed lips from me, sorry. Just can't get past those vocals. Shame, as I really loved Cosmic Logic and the "Little Flower / Conga Blue" single from earlier this year was pretty good too.

I quite like this, better than the last one for sure. But it never seems to end.

^^Looking forward to paring it down to 936/Lucifer length.

this album is so so awesome

its length is a boon imo bc if i'm high enough i never want it to end

"que du bon" is the most radical thing i've heard all year

new one is aces

Yeah, love the new one. Since the Chromatics can't be bothered to put out their new album, this one will do.

ya i tend to believe that one won't come out as they're not happy with it, but that's unconfirmed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVbDF8k_lOk

one of my fav tracks from 2017

Last album damn

I don’t know their old stuff but I adore the last record. What’s their output like prior?

Worth a listen

new one on dekmantel sounds absolutely bonkers

their attempt at making a house track turns out curiously like a mashup of eric copeland and maurice fulton

http://youtu.be/lWNkfvaQi3A

i prefer the stuff that sounds more like trad peaking lights

http://youtu.be/t52CdfkgyzE

they also get into a lot of italo

and some straight up new age

http://youtu.be/FVVT8EBqK3g

can't wait to get this

fifth state was legit incredible

so it's an ep? probably as long as a full length tho?

i think it’s about 40 mins

thanks for the heads up

I have a love-hate relationship with this band. Back on board with this latest release though.

i personally did not much enjoy cosmic logic or fifth state, but the new one is on point

why didnt you enjoy it

fifth state has long songs that justify their length imo, as brad mentioned up thread he never wanted it to end which is OTM

I thought Cosmic Logic was a misfire but loved Fifth State, I guess this one is more concise (in both song and total length) but otherwise it strikes me as an extension of the ideas from that album.

on dekmantel

crazy

ya this is p good. best parts are the least peaking lightsey

their attempt at making a house track turns out curiously like a mashup of eric copeland and maurice fulton

lol otm

that's strange

i didn't mean to post that link to "what will happen in one billion years"

i meant to post the new age title track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E44yUJIh23Y

what are your favorite parts flops

https://pitchfork.com/news/lee-scratch-perry-and-peaking-lights-announce-new-album-share-new-song-magik-listen/

oh shit

I love the way this band sounds, but I find them exhausting to listen to because like 90% of their songs are in a minor key. It's a quirk of personal taste, and I love lots of minor-key music, but at this band's level it becomes kind of a wash for me. It's the same problem I have with Klaus Schulze. I need more light in my electronic psychedelia.

i apparently missed sea of sand last year and whoa i regret it

whyyyyyy is this band so underraaaaaaaaated

whyyyyyy is this band so underraaaaaaaaated

― american bradass (BradNelson), Monday, November 18, 2019 6:49 PM (thirty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

My guess would be the vocals

i am rolling my eyes at you so hard i'm pretty sure it is audible

Could it be because people aren't smoking enough weed?

they co-produced this new lee scratch perry EP that basically sounds like peaking lights with occasional interjections by lee scratch perry

https://stonesthrow.bandcamp.com/album/life-of-the-plants