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Peaking Lights is Aaron and Indra from Rahdunes and Numbers. Their duo project finds them relocated to Madison/ Rural Wisconsin from the Bay Area. One could describe their new sound as floating electronic pulses, controlled feedback, tape loops, organ, synth, guitar, and vocal harmonies layered into waves of four track noise pop goodness. In short, they're the perfect soundtrack to walking through mysterious places, haunted neighborhoods, lost river banks, and going on stoned bike rides at night. Read more on Last.fm
It’s impossible not to mention the similarities with Pocahaunted’s duo material, but you get the feeling that here Peaking Lights is taking that sound to the logical conclusion that the Poca girls never got to themselves. The sound here is a lot cleaner than both pre-“Make It Real” Pocahaunted and anything Peaking Lights has done in the past, but none of the brilliance displayed on “Imaginary Falcons” or “Space Primitive” was a direct byproduct of its low fidelity; instead, it was evidence of a great band coming together with this as the finished product.
Despite being released at the tail end of winter this is undoubtedly a summer record, the music sounding more at home in the Caribbean than its actual origin in Madison, WI. The operative words here are “dub” – and this is certainly as good a dub record as there’s been in YEARS – and “sunshine,” The Congos’ classic “Heart of the Congos” as logical a touchstone as anything else. The music has roots in more recent creations as well, though, as hypnotic as anything Ripley Johnson has done with Wooden Shjips or Moon Duo, and the group also plays Stereolab’s game of applying foreign musical forms – trading French pop for reggae, obviously – to headier American conceits. A new high water mark for the American neo-psychedelic scene.
Highlights: “All the Sun That Shines,” “Birds of Paradise (Dub Version),” “Tiger Eyes (Laid Back)”