This is an unusual combination, the music tight, almost luxurious, in its jangling soundscapes, the beat nostalgic, driving and precise but gilded with vocals that are pushed behind an almost overwhelming blanket of reverb – their whispered lyrics close to indecipherable but clearly filled with yearning. It’s an initially odd combination which on first listen felt unaligned and strangely unsettling. But this is music that repays repeated listening and after a little while, Christian Lessells’ delicate songs seemed to suddenly make sense. There’s real beauty at work here.
These are sounds that shape a dreamlike tranquillity glossed in heat-hazed and shimmering atmospherics. Indeed, these two fleeting tracks are filled with a sun-dappled ambience that feels almost Balearic in associations. This is music made in London but it feels like it’s calling out to a far more southern star where a cicada-seething soil is cooling after burning all day. This is not temperate music – these sounds need a sky still alive with the sun’s searing memory. Even the artwork reflects these open, coral-toned horizons.
At different points, Pale play with the beat in carefully controlled ways that adds further soft-lit dynamics to proceedings. These songs are light – ephemeral even – held tight by that close and thrumming production, that slippery guitar playing sinuous lines amid the mass of airy, space-evoking atmospheres.
Released by Spirit Goth Records. as a download only on May 22nd, it’s a welcome introduction to Pale’s dreamy, auriferous explorations. Something to keep an ear out for.
Here’s hoping the sun comes out soon.
Written by M.A Welsh (Misophone)