Florida-born, California-based duo LANNDS describe themselves as an alternative, electronic-psychedelic project. The second single “Hold My Place” from their forthcoming EP If The Door Closes has just landed, and while it was intriguing to me even before I hit Play, as the band says, it is a romantic electronic ballad. An enticing prospect for sure!
Easing into the track, a beat slowly fades in. It’s a sparse, fractured rhythm, but full of warmth. I loved the lo-fi bubbly percussive sounds with their abstract groove balanced by the sustained pad.
Rania Woodard’s vocal is intimate and as smooth as silk. Breathless notes are held in suspended animation like dust in the sunlight. There are ghostly backing vocals, pitched vocals, chopped vocals – all masterfully woven together.
There’s heart here too, though, and the delicate vocal melody adds an ethereal soulfulness:
“Tell me, who do you love now?
Do they know you like I did before?
Or the silence in your eyes?”
With an increasing sense of unease, a sci-fi synth sound plays a minimalistic melody that has a cold, dystopian, cyber-punk flavour. It’s bleakly beautiful.
As the song develops, things seem to twist and contort more and more. Layer upon layer, moving further away from the real world and deeper into some sort of futuristic, otherworldly dream.
“Hold My Place” is one of the most unique and atmospheric tracks I’ve heard in quite a while. A trip-hop ballad for true interstellar travellers. Take a look at the music video for the track below.
Written by Grubby
