Artist: Peaking Lights
Title: Lucifer
Record Label: Mexican Summer
Rating: 7.5

It must be difficult for a band to know if their new tunes are any good or if anyone will like their latest output. Most acts hit the road and test drive handfuls of songs on intimate tours, or more so these days, groups fire out free MP3s to gauge opinion on their sonic titbits. This would all appear too conventional for Peaking Lights, otherwise known as Aaron Coyes and Indra Dunis as they have a unique way of sampling out their new work. Their method of evaluation is their one year old son, Mikko. The little one shows his appreciation to a song he likes by bobbing his head in time to the duo’s blissed out lo-fi electronica. When Mikko’s nods of contentment catch the eye of his parents, they know they have a winner on their hands and so we have Mikko to thank for the eight sombre tracks that inhabit his parent’s latest album Lucifer. The album actually works like one long song that ebbs and flows like a feather being caught on an updraft. The album embraces a sonic template that is almost dreamlike, and is equal parts relaxing as it is thought provoking depending on your mood.

The album’s moniker of Lucifer is another interesting factor to this record as the LP couldn’t sound any less demonic. It would seem before Lucifer became associated with aspects of a demonic nature, its true connotation was to the planet Venus as the bringer of light as it rises in the morning. The kind of light Lucifer conjures up isn’t first light, but twilight as the records laidback rhythms that verge into dub on a number of tracks sound more accustomed to when the sun no longer occupies the sky and you begin to wind down. The sleep like quality of the twosomes sophomore output isn’t just played out on the tracks themselves, a number of the song titles depict slumber references with ‘Dream Beat’, ‘Moonrise’ and ‘Morning Star’ fitting the celestial bill.

Lucifer isn’t the record to set pulses racing, no matter how devilish its title, the album has a child like innocence and a laidback appeal, as approved by Mikko, one year old.

Words and Thoughts of Adam Williams