Lightsabres ‘Demons’ LP/CS/DD 2013
A long time ago, in a country far, far away….
It is a period of general unrest. Lightsabres, striking from a hidden base in Luleå, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire of uninteresting music.
During the intro, Lightsabres manages to draw your interest with secretive, gentle music which is even a bit woozy to the ear. Vast fuzzy riffs, like an armoured space station, with enough power to blow up ones speakers.
Perused by the whiney, jangly guitars, the rhythm section pounds onwards at a laidback pace, offering the sound that can save our people and restore freedom to the galaxy…
OK, writing this review like the intro lines of Star Wars is an official fail. Apart from that nostalgic lo-fi garage sound these guys produce, there’s not that much to link them to the saga anyways. The name is undeniably cool though. The artwork may be a bit misleading. Skulls and a logo that made me think of grindcore or death metal on first sight.
But seriously, these guys sound somewhere between Ty Segal, Night Beats and perhaps a bit of the Kyuss sound if they want to be a bit more powerful, like on ‘Eyez‘. ‘Black Hash‘ opens the album after the intro and sounds so lovingly laid back that calling it stoner rock would be wrong. Like many contemporary psychedelic garage bands, these guys blend various influences together. The laid back tunes of King Tuff and The Growlers, bumping into Mudhoney would be an adequate description for the simple, but quirky sound of a song like ‘Fly Like A Bird‘.
Lightsabres does make you think the band plays something sharp and technical, but nothing is further from the truth. Fuzzed out, spacing sound patterns flood out for two minutes on ‘Red Light‘. If Ewoks smoked the right stuff, this would be their music instead. After this dreamy bit, the guitars of ‘Born To Die‘ lay down an energizing pattern, like the swooping sound of lightsabers cutting through thin air. A slow paced, hazy punk song is crafted over it in a fuzzed out atmosphere of mild noise.
`That lo-fi sound really works magic for Lightsabres, It gives an air of mystique to the music, a sort of gritty garage vibe and atmosphere, that would otherwise be minimal for songs like ‘Ceasar’. A peculiar song, that combines primitive punk rock with post-rock, like The Stooges having a jam session with Mogwai. Eerie sounds form the second part of the song. It’s a Ty Segall cover by the way, but a clear own take on what it should sound like according to these Swedes.
Closing of the record is the song ‘Demons’, which is the longest and most intriguing on the record. Dreamy and haunting, the tones reverberate and create an atmosphere of melancholy. It’s pretty much the best song on the record, but also the gentlest. Low bass sounds make it a song that you feel in your belly. This may be a short record, but it’s really worth the listen.
Label: Self Released | 808 New York Tapes
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp
Scribed by: Guido Segers
