Word: track
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Lightning Bolt recorded the bulk of their eponymous debut in a studio, but before the album’s release decided to scrap the meticulously-recorded studio cuts in favor of live 4-track recordings. The result was what one would expect when condensing a room full of pummeling drums and gut-wrenching bass amplifiers down to anemic laptop speakers, tinny iPod headphones, or muddy home stereos: while it reminded a lucky few of that crazy show they saw in a dirty Providence loft, to the rest of us it sounded underpowered and underwhelming. Subsequent releases improved the recording quality...
...Gibson’s feedback-soaked bass rattles the hi-hat before diving into a riff as catchy as you can expect from the borderline noise that is Lightning Bolt. Multiple effects chains are audible above Chippendale’s machine gun drumming, and the latter half of the track features multi-tracking that would have been unthinkable in the band’s early days. The result is a thick tangle of dissonance that can hardly be traced to the single, humble vibrating string from which it emerged...
...Soft Bulletin” to life. But the relationship between the two records is almost totally inverted: while “The Soft Bulletin” brought a cinematic—at times even an operatic—sensibility to its structure, emphasizing the individual track as an autonomous episode within a greater, looser narrative, “Embryonic” reverts the energy of the single track toward a teleology that is itself the album-whole. It’s dense, menacing, and groove-oriented in a way that reminds the listener of the Talking Heads?...
...wonder Modern English, with a hint of Sigur Rós mysticism. The project, while coming somewhat near a rousing post-generation-Y anarchist spirit, ultimately fails at both creating a niche for itself and inspiring the alternative attitude so intended by the 11-track record...
Without comprehensible lyrics, the entire album relies heavily on its musical originality to justify its artistic endeavor, taking a risk with highly artificial melodies and voice tracks. “Youth Tunes” initiates the record with a synthesizer and a staccato guitar rhythm, while an odd, indiscernible voice warbles in the background and the guitar strums become progressively more ravaging. “Imaginary Friends” insists on an innocent nostalgia with its lilting yet pressing “oh’s,” attempting to pass off its gibberish as distinguishable lyrics...