>>Nostalgia For Infinity

Lights At Sea are based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a town which also plays host to instrumental duo Charles the Osprey (reviewed last year) and Ghost Heart (reviewed a few weeks ago). I guess they dig their post-rock and ambient music there because Lights At Sea play – you guessed it – ambient post-rock in the vein of Explosions in the Sky, Pelican, Mogwai or a pacier This Will Destroy You.

The band shift easily and competently between ethereal moments and rocking out, typically within individual songs. There are seven songs on Palace Walls and none outstay their welcome; a few are shorter pieces like ‘Fireside’ (which offers a sensation a little like waves lapping at a shore) or ‘Ode to Malory’ (which employs a similar trick, using shimmering waves of sound to build to a crescendo) but for the most part each song is about five to seven minutes long and is internally varied enough to sustain the interest of the average beardo like me. This is post-rock in an energetic and driving form rather than the almost-pompous ponderousness that many such bands fall prey to, but it’s equally precise and considered for all that.

‘Blight’ is a decent example of the band at their more energetic and hooky: a strong use of dynamics and downplayed use of delay (the characteristic guitar effect of almost every instrumental post-rock band) lend the song a robust sense of emotional resonance. That sense is a fleeting one, though, because the music doesn’t recall any particular emotional or sense – but you’re free to project your own feelings onto it.

Elsewhere ‘Mantracker’ judders forwards with a relentless sense of progress, whereas contrarily ‘This is a House’ deploys a repeated rise and fall structure; the band are comfortable changing things up with their songwriting.

Here are some situations in which I discovered Lights At Sea to be a really nice band to listen to:

1. Riding on a bus around London, passing through areas you’ve never seen before.
2. Feeling terribly hungover and being on a train. Wishing you’d bought something to eat.
3. Walking around Brighton, where you live.
4. Through some actual speakers on your computer, possibly whilst writing a review, instead of on an old iPod with earbuds.

I include this list to try and underscore the point I touched on earlier: Palace Walls is a blank slate in a lot of ways. It’s technically proficient, interesting, entertaining and varied music, but with no genuine sense of emotional power or thematic drive. The band have the talent to write good songs, and they’ve got the self-awareness to keep things varied and challenging – now they just need to figure out how to tie all of this together into a more coherent whole. Having said that, Palace Walls is worth your time, if only because I think there’s a potentially great record in this band’s future and what music fan doesn’t like getting in on a band early?

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