Lamplight Social 2024
Neon Burning
British frontiers-defying family find new ways to define urban despair and dig for optimism in brightly lit streets.
It may seem to be customary for up-and-coming artists to find themselves – or at lest, their listeners – a comfortable stylistic niche before striking beyond the base, but this Gateshead ensemble don’t restrain any fantasy by genre boundaries. The band’s self-titled debut, recorded and released in 2020, during the pandemic, was a testament to their audacity, and five years that passed since then only served to expand the creative horizons the collective have pursued from the start. The same period also reduced their line-up to singer Zoe Gilby and multi-instrumentalist Andy Champion, which increased the degree of intimacy in the songs amassed lately, so there’s a lot of understated allure in “Neon Burning” to make the eight numbers on display irresistible, although not immediately accessible.
“Neon burning takes the soul from stars”: again, it may seem easy to summarize the album’s anxious sweetness in this single line from the record’s titular finale that dissolves the expansive gloom, which delicately relentless, bass-propelled opener “Cast Away” projects onto subsequent tracks, in a simple torch tune – delivered in sultry tones, exposing Zoe’s mastery of jazz, and shrouded in Andy’s twangy electric shimmer and haunting harmonies. Still, in order to get to the other end of the couple’s crepuscular trip, one will have to get immersed into the panoramic perspectives of the tender “Wide Open Sky” that sculpts a train-like chug out of acoustic strum to pass the pop-minded momentum to vocals, and of the insistent “Who Are You?” that, carried on catchy guitar riffs and equally infectious piano ripples, soars towards celestial heights before turning predatorily funky and embracing fusion. The duo’s approach to arrangements and their handling of melodies are arrestingly elegant on “Silently Dancing” where bossa nova and indie meet for a swirl, while the folk-informed “Leaving Light” unfolds into a gorgeous ballad Nick Drake and Sandy Denny would have loved to delve in, and the proggy “Satellites” contrasts such idyll with solid beats, roaring organ and cosmic effects Chris Sharkey’s six strings pierce in a rather furious manner.
And then there’s the epic “Page By Page” that brings together the various elements of the pair’s compositional method – playful, albeit reserved in the English way. These elements boil under the glossy surface and enter a looking-glass suspense after the piece’s initial drive is resolved in a series of pensive passages courtesy of Champion, which gently wrap Gilby’s voice in otherworldly sonic cocoon. Admitting to be sentenced a good life, the two musicians inhabit a rare existential place of troubled bliss – the place everyone’s welcome in.
****2/3
