Son Lux – Bones
- Written by Ben Macnair
Ryan Lott is one of those restless musicians, collaborating and experimenting across genres and instruments to produce music that is both completely original, but having its roots in far more familiar sonic terrain.
Son Lux is now a trio, with Lott on composing, vocal and keyboard duties, and the sound being filled in with the noticeable addition of drummer Ian Chang and guitarist Rafiq Bhatia. These two musicians add a completely new sound and dimension to Lott’s work, but still carry on the general aesthetic that was established on 2013’s Lanterns and 2014’s Alternate Worlds EP.
So, the album is book-ended by the atmospheric, meandering Pink Floyd like tracks of ‘Breathe In’ and ‘Breathe Out’ respectively, but between these two quality pieces, a lot of musical ground is covered. From the slow Ultravox like tracks of ‘Change is Everything’ and ‘Flight’, whilst the Jean Michel Jarre keyboard squiggles of ‘You Don’t Know Me’, mixed with a brooding, relentless slow rhythm, and the male and female vocals add to a track that is both new and reassuringly familiar at the same time.
A different drum is employed during ‘This Time’, but the use of a repeating Binatone Tennis like bleep is slightly distracting, although the displays of guitar shredding virtuosity from Bhatia adds a touch of both humour and impressive musicianship.
The use of highly treated vocals adds a lot of atmosphere to the music, which has that early ‘80s synth band vibe, and interesting, undulating rhythm and percussion tracks. The music is technically quite glacial and cold, but the fact that a lot of though and effort has gone into the both the construction of the songs, and their production means that the album will find fans amongst people who like both new music, and music with a novel, retro feel to it.