Peaking Lights

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.

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