Lathe of Heaven – Aurora
Articles about bands used to mention where the musicians were from, where they grew up and whether they had a well-stocked music store that they could depend on. Articles still mention this, but it’s, for the most part, pointless.
Modern songs don’t just have the power to echo a certain emotion in us. With so much music shared between us, they also have the ability to make us all think of a specific time and place. Lathe of Heaven have very much figured this out.
Don’t pay any attention to the naysayers working for The Guardian and telling bands that they can’t appropriate the sounds and styles of an era. Appropriate away! You can be an Eastern European and turn yourself into 70s glam Bowie if you can rely on the right tunes and on an impeccable playing style.
This is why you shouldn’t ask where and when Lathe of Heaven’s “Aurora” was made. For all intents and purposes, this is music made in Northern England during the 1980s. It certainly sounds that way. It’s certainly designed to make you feel the same way that you did when you first heard those kinds of silky, synthy tunes bathed in deep melancholy. And if you have been building a personal playlist focused on this kind of music, here’s another song that you can easily and safely add to it.
Neptunian Phoenix – Luna
There’s simply no way to stop the passing of time. There’s no way to get the waves in the Sea to simply roll around you. Neither learns to roll with the punches, or accepts that they’re going to get swept away.
Life offers no time to let you catch your breath. It doesn’t give you the opportunity to rearrange it or to start again. And why should modern music, then, which ought to reflect the nature of reality, want to do things differently? This is something that, likely, Neptunian Phoenix has considered.
Every culture has enough pleasant, old songs. Every culture has enough people who remember the old ballads and are able to sing them whenever somebody requests them. Now, however, might be the time to write songs that reflect the world as it is.
“Luna” by Neptunian Phoenix is built on a relentless beat to jump forward the same distance and precisely the same time. It does not allow for the music to move backwards or sideways. And that almost militaristic approach to its post-punk sound helps this Panama band deliver its nocturnal, strange tales. This is, after all, a world that won’t wait on anyone. Neptunian Phoenix capture the essence of our collective worries in one short song.
