Lights Out Asia – In The Days of Jupiter
Lights Out Asia – In The Days of Jupiter
N5MD 2010
Rating: 5/10
With album art no astronaut would deny makes a good January for his wall calendar and a whole lot of ethereal soundscapes in their suitcase, Lights Out Asia are, for one hour, back in our lives. And the one thing I can say about In The Days of Jupiter is that we are being beamed down upon. We are, finally, being treated the way we always should have from this band; the mysterious blank dot of space, the big planets that fill it, the whole damned transcendent nature of the thing. Why did it take so long for a space rock record, guys?
This is pretty admirable, and the general concept behind In The Days of Jupiter is enough to excite any fan; for a trio of ten-minute climaxes and (short) dissertations on the existence of God, conquering the universe is pretty much the next step. And the more I listen to their latest record I wonder how I never saw it in an album as mysterious as Eyes Like Brontide.
This is the thing, though- that’s exactly what I see in Eyes Like Brontide; an album that shines and shimmers with its electronic decorations, wearing its quiet-loud dynamic proudly and begging the listener to be some sort of emotional passenger, gliding from calm ambient sections to devastating climaxes with more beat than brain.
The shine and shimmer wears off as we approach Jupiter, though. Maybe it’s having heard three Lights Out Asia records before this that pushes me away, but I don’t think so; I’m comfortable with the style these downtempo kids provide, but its execution leaves something to be desired here. In The Days of Jupiterattempts, as always, to soar as one piece of music, told in chapters but ultimately with no track simply in it for itself. Division of the music is more generous this time around, and ultimately it hinders flow more than it embodies it; “All These Worlds are Yours” stays subdued and perhaps even irrelevant as a counterpart to its follow-up, “Except Europa,” which seems to trip over its own feet as it stops and starts the wind to climax.
Enough about the technical though; the real issue I have with In The Days of Jupiter, the first album to go past ten tracks since Garmonia, is what it’s revealed to me. For the first time I feel attached to one side of Lights Out Asia rather than the other, because their downtempo material here begs to come in peace: tracks like “All Is Quiet In The Valley” and “Bye Bye Novemeber” want to glide. They sound as if they are in key with whatever humble, galactic theme In The Days of Jupiter rests on. The small flittering key changes on these tracks are minimalist in their technique, but are styled in emotive fashion that sounds signature of this band. And as for ten-minute epics, give me “Great Men From Unhealthy Ground” over “Shifting Sands Wreck Ships” any day.
That is how I know that I’m not simply tired of Lights Out Asia. There’s no extra dimension to add to an album as densely layered as In The Days of Jupiter, but there’s certainly one to lose. It’s devastating to hear a band throw away an ambient ballad as gorgeous as “13AM” because they’re still hung up on blazing it alight with the post-rock gene, to see that the silence of space has been given over to the familiar, awkward world of distortion and noise. It just doesn’t fit anymore. Lights Out Asia are in the sky, they are not explosions in the sky. What I wouldn’t give to hear them all hushed up.
Lights Out Asia – “All Is Quiet In The Valley”
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