Album review | Lotus Plaza, ‘Spooky Action at a Distance’
Deerhunter has become one of the more consistent sonic explorers in recent years. They are a fascinating group in that there seems to be a democracy under which they work, the same way any one person might experience the ideology – fully participatory of each other yet with an insanely disproportionate power structure.
Brian Charlton
Contributing Writer
Deerhunter has become one of the more consistent sonic explorers in recent years. They are a fascinating group in that there seems to be a democracy under which they work, the same way any one person might experience the ideology – fully participatory of each other yet with an insanely disproportionate power structure.
With lead singer Branford Cox fronting the group, and having come out with three solo-albums as Atlas Sound, he has quickly become one of the most dominant rock personalities. Not to mention how he overshadows his own band with long interviews and bleached blonde hair.
It is easy to view fellow Deerhunter band member Lockett Pundt as following in the footsteps of the introverted guitar masters who serve as a necessary counterweight to their enigmatic counterparts.
Based on this understanding of Pundt, it came as no surprise that his debut solo album under Locus Plaza, 2009’s “The Floodlight Collective,” came with a mixed bag of looping guitars so loud to consciously overpower his amorphous vocals. He seemed hidden behind his music, and where the songs should have glorified themselves they were kept in their own comfort zone, never evolving too far from their original framework. It is the kind of work an artist trying his damnedest to not be noticed would produce.
Pundt’s sophomore album “Spooky Action at a Distance” came into the limelight only a couple of months ago with the release of his single “Strangers,” which created some buzz. With its fuzzed melody of back-and-forth guitar riffs, discerning drum beats and clear quality vocals, one could see a definite change in pace for this new installment. The song ends with his anti-flash sound that tends to break from the casually soaring chorus, as in “Desire Lines” from Deerhunter’s “Halcyon Digest.”
Qualifiers like “shoe gaze” and “dream pop” come to mind with Lotus Plaza’s new attempt. The recordings themselves elicit a more clear and understanding sound; the songs are more confident this time around. There is a meditative state of mind that is strongly indulged within the confines of the space Pundt has created for us.
While the name might seem to unduly concoct an overambitious feeling for the album, it is expansive, beautiful and like Einstein’s interestingly named theory, feels like greater things are colliding in an infinite space of matter.
It might seem like “Spooky Action at a Distance” is an overly subtle work, but it is imperative to understand that 44 minutes have gone by from start to end brimming with immediacy and dreamlike structures, the sort of thing that might become tiresome at the length of an LP. You have to ask yourself how hard this might be to make consistent, fluid and fresh. Pundt has found a way to crank out one instantly memorable chorus with ear-turning melodies after another.
