Last year the husband & wife duo Peaking Lights surprised us with their extraordinary sophomore album 936. The Bay Area based band had produced a gem full of languid and intoxicating tunes that were echoing an array of contemporary influences, ranging from synthpop, lo-fi and psychedelia to dub, reggae and Krautrock. After initially having you sit on the edge of your seat to take it all in, you could gradually lean back into lounge position and limit yourself to hitting the repeat button on your CD player or MP3 player. Apart from the artwork their third album is even better
On Lucifer Indra Dunis and Aaron Coyes take up where they left of last year, but at the same time take huge step in forward in perfecting their unique sound. Lucifer, unlike its two predecessors, is not recorded at home but in a studio, naturally the sound quality benefits. Peaking Lights have somehow managed to make an even more versatile album than the already so broad-based previous albums. Added to 936 intriguing mix is an extra dose of electronic dance. Again Peaking Lights manage to mix several in itself intense, sometimes even nervous elements into a relaxing and meditative record. The tracks on Lucifer are quite lengthy, with none of them running under six minutes. Despite this and the low BPM there is no time to get distracted or bored. There’s way too much adventure and hypnotism going on for that to happen.
The musical web woven by Peaking Light punctuated beautifully by Indra Dunis pretty vocals, is pleasant enough. Still it are those playful musical outings (including vocal contributions from the duo’s newly born son) that the icing on Lucifer’s cake. I have trouble describing the exact taste of the icing or the cake, so you best find out for yourself. It’s a good thing that Lucifer is released on the brink of summer. All the reggae and dub influences will make it highly suitable higher temperatures. Hopefully the album will be picked up at some of the hip beaches that are popping up all over our cities. A beautiful album like Lucifer deserves to be enjoyed by a wider audience, preferably one on flip-flops.
This review was adapted from de Krenten uit de Pop.