Bright Lights Edition: Light Conductor, LITE, The Mystery Lights & Flamingods

Light Conductor: Sequence One

With summer almost here, the sun is out and the days are long. It’s the season of light and may yours shine bright with this otherwise random assortment of illuminating new music. First up is Light Conductor a side project of Stephen Ramsay from Young Galaxy and Jace Lasek from The Besnard Lakes. The best my-other-band’s take musicians far from their normal comfort zone and this fits that bill, the duo providing a vibey, ambient, drone, electronic thing on their debut album Sequence One. This one’s a breathe-deep-and-zone-out’er of the highest degree, for closing your mind’s eye and just letting your brain drift where it may. When you’re in that mood, this’ll take you there. Go to the light, my friends.

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LITE: Multiple

On the far opposite end of the spectrum is a brand new album that is definitely inappropriate for quiet meditation. This one comes to us from Tokyo, courtesy of LITE. These guys are a wicked instrumental four-piece playing their brand of post-rock/math-rock, heavy duty shit. Their sixth album is Multiple. It just came out last week and man, if Umphrey’s McGee were an instrumental quartet from Japan, they might sound like this. Metal meets groove, prog eats jazz, complex unfolding compositions give way to rapid-fire explorations. It comes at you and it comes at you fast with a propulsion that’s tough to resist even if you wanted to. This light’s a strobe, jittery illusions and a lot of fun. Enjoy!

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The Mystery Lights: Too Much Tension!

Closer to home, we’ve got the newest release from The Mystery Lights. The album is Too Much Tension! and with that title and the chaotic collage of a cover, the state is set for the serious tangle of rock and roll contained within. The record is out on Wick Records, a rock subsidiary of Daptone and that fits the Mystery Lights pretty well. Throwback rock energy, you can smell the garage where these songs were tinkered to bombastic perfection and feel the love for punk and good old classic rock and roll. If you like guitars cranked to if-it’s-too-loud-you’re-too-old levels, fuzzy, distorted and glorious guitars … put your sunglasses on and check this one out.

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Flamingods: Levitation

Now that we’re aglow with light from across the spectrum, let’s finish this thing off with some high brightness. Flamingods will do the trick, I think. The British band have a worldwise sound that captures the funkiest, grooviest, out-of-your-headiest sounds from around the globe and light it all on fire into their own technicolor music. Their newest record is Levitation and it’s of the no-way-you-won’t-love-this variety, addictive dance grooves meet wig-flipping psychedelia in all the right ways. Seriously, get that disco ball spinning, hit it with a spotlight and shine bright with Flamingods.

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