The impression that I got from various official sources for the band is that Everlovely Lightningheart are some kind of artistic commune that have tapped into some abstract spiritual plane and have brought back enlightenment in the form of music. While there is a lot of beautiful music on this album, Everlovely Lightningheart are far from the cultural monument that they're portrayed as.
Hydra Head
Cusp is a single 40 minute track where the music is split up into different movements but still form one piece, each bit fades into the other but there is little to link them thematically. It begins with a piano line that becomes more haunting as it is drenched in reverb and fades out (it sounds almost like it is wheeled out into a different room). This melodious intro is replaced by a lengthy, atmospheric soundscape. It is pleasing to the ears and relaxing to the mind but it lacks any real depth to engage me.
Segments of Cusp veer into Godspeed territory: about half-way through is what sounds like a dulcimer and lots of echoed noise that just screams Constellation Records to me. This isn’t an isolated event. Many of these moments sound great but it feels like I’m listening to Lift Your Skinny Fists like Antennas to Heaven rather than a new album by a new band (well newish, it’s been out for a few months). It’s one thing to take influence but quite the other just to appropriate such a distinctive sound for your own.
My main problem with this album is that there are a few bits that I’d rate quite highly but they’re trapped in the middle of the disc with some less than appealing material between them. As this is all one track I can’t just skip to what I like or program the CD player to ignore it. Instead it’s the tedious task of fast forwarding through the audio to get to what I want. I can’t see myself listening to Cusp very often but equally it’s not that bad that I’m going to ignore it forever. There’s potential here if they find a sound of their own, I’ll be interested to see how any future releases sound. For now, they’re just another instrumental band with good intentions but lacking the A grade material.
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