There’s a few things you can always count on with an n5MD release. Firstly, the production values are going to be high. Secondly, you can be fairly certain of the style you’re going to be hearing. These two factors can often work against each other – while you know that the releases will be eminently listenable, there’s generally not too much in the way of surprises. Eyes Like Brontide, the second full-length release from Lights Out Asia and their first with the label, does much to confirm both the strengths and weaknesses of that particular dichotomy.
Eyes Like Brontide is lushly produced post-rock. Swathes of reverb almost function as the lead instrument throughout the album. Synthetic strings lay down the beds on which piano and guitar, both heavily delayed, can play. Those two instruments generally take on the role of providing melodic focus. They can sometimes feel a little saccharine, as can the occasional vocal. Rhythms tread a line between IDM glitchiness and much straighter low tempo groove, but keep the energy levels relaxed either way. The tracks wash over as a whole, and that is probably the point, but I personally found it difficult to discern any great movement across the album, which is fine if you are building walls of drone noise, but not so appealing if you are sticking to more traditional elements of rhythm, melody and harmony, which Lights Out Asia are clearly seeking to do. Everything is very easy on the ears and sits in its place, but often to the detriment of true engagement.
What really saves the album is its closing track, the 11 minute opus of ‘Six Points Of Fire’. A slow build feels much like the rest of the album until the guitars kick in at the 5 minute mark with, for the first time on the album, some live drums. What at first feels like typical early 90s British shoegaze fare builds in weight through the sheer force of repetition over the next three minutes, a small gap of respite, then even harsher walls of distortion to see the album out powerfully.
Adrian Elmer
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