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Lights at Sea, Palace Walls: House of Noodles

Hailing from the oh-so-pastoral climes of Grand Rapids, Michigan, the four-piece Lights at Sea traffics in a kind of wispy ethereal instrumental post-rock. It’s a sound most commonly associated these days with acts like Explosions in the Sky, but as Lights at Sea’s full-length debut, Palace Walls (Mind over Matter/Barrett Records) has some crunch to its low-end, I’m inclined to cite earlier Pelican as well, the two guitars of Scott Adams and Ryan Harig playing off each other in rhythms and echoing tonality. The album, which is a full-length at a bit under 35 minutes, is comprised of seven explorations that feel somewhere between improvised jamming and pointedly linear structures. Doubtless the band, which is rounded out by drummer Rob Burt and bassist Nick Rhodes, had some direction in mind for these tracks before pressing record, but with this kind of effects swirl, there are bound to be moments and sounds that pop up as part of the studio experience that simply couldn’t have been foreseen, and these are often some of the most magical stretches that albums like this have to offer.

What’s holding Palace Walls back, then, is the ease with which it can be pigeonholed into a genre. Cuts like the title-track, which follows a softly droning, minimalist intro dubbed “Fireside,” set up an effective build across their span, but it’s simple to write these and many of the other moves Lights at Sea are making here as derivative. One of their most engaging cuts is the centerpiece “Mantracker,” and even here Lights at Sea aren’t accomplishing anything in their encompassing all of sound that Red Sparowes wasn’t doing with their Godspeed You! Black Emperor influence on their own first album in 2005. To Lights at Sea’s credit, the flow from one track to the next on Palace Walls is immaculate, but I’m not convinced even after multiple listens that that alone is going to be enough to save them amidst fickle ears or heads bored of spaced out noodling. It’s a young sound anyway – one half expects to hear someone start post-hardcore screaming at several intervals on the album, “This is a House of Learned Doctors” among them – but even so, it’s one long since established, and Lights at Sea don’t bring much to it that wasn’t there to start with.

On the other hand, what Palace Walls does to distinguish itself is show that Lights at Sea aren’t afraid to get heavy and stay heavy. With so much stylistically geared toward setting a more brightly-hued atmosphere, it would be almost expected that Lights at Sea would slip into directionless ambient sections and completely void the listener’s interest. Even when closer “Truck Party” goes into what was doubtless called “the pretty part” in the practice room, it maintains some sense of direction, so that when the build pays off leading to the close of the album, you genuinely want to follow it. Adams and Harig are mostly headed in two different directions – earlier on the album, on “Blight,” I found myself very much wanting the guitars to join together for a heavy-riffing climax, and instead the track dissipated into to quiet beginning of “Mantracker” – but on “Truck Party” they do precisely that, and the result is the apex of the record. Whether an album (even a short one) needs only a single apex is a matter up for debate, but where Lights at Sea want it, they put it, and they’re clearly aware enough of what they’re doing to know the difference.

I’d be interested to hear them develop their low-end heft more, to have the guitars sit back in terms of business and occasionally let Rhodes lead the way with his formidable tone or Burt’s precise and creative tom-work, but either way, whatever stylistic, genre-based gripes might arise, there’s no question that Palace Walls is impeccably produced, professional-sounding and bound to help Lights at Sea make their name. For anyone who can’t get enough of this type of thing or who might not have had much experience with the newer end of post-rock, there’s a lot here to enjoy – especially if you’re coming from the heavier side of music to start with – but Lights at Sea have a lot of growing to do if they want to get to the point where their songs are more their own than they are their genre’s. As Palace Walls has its moments and flashes of individuality – and don’t come out of this review thinking those aren’t worth hearing – one hopes the band will be able to undertake that growth and mature into what the potential on display here shows they can be.

Lights at Sea on Facebook

Barrett Records

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