Lucius Fox is the operative name for the Kalamazoo, Michigan-based duo comprising guitarist/keyboardist/composer Jeremy Cronk and drummer Paul Drake. To date, they have released five full-length albums and a smattering of singles, with their sixth effort, the sprawling The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, slated for release on Friday, September 12, 2025. Released independently as a limited 2xLP, this most recent excursion shows the duo maintaining their core sound while pushing onward to new sonic terrain, expanding the limits of what a two-piece band can do.
The Death and Life of the Great Lakes was conceived as an exposition of Cronk’s ruminations surrounding the Great Lakes—Michigan, Huron, Ontario, Erie, and Superior—and the memories they’ve instilled in him, as well as their decline and degradation at the hands of senseless capitalist greed. This concept was further amplified when Cronk’s dear mother—ever his champion, guardian, and supporter—passed away unexpectedly in July 2024. The raw pain and grief deeply influenced the delivery of the Great Lakes song cycle as well as the inclusion of two new songs, the “Lake Isle Memorial” and “July” pieces that bookend the experience, each providing a respite from Lucius Fox’s cumulative sonic assault.
Admittedly, I have always had difficulty describing the exact style of Lucius Fox (which is generally a good sign to me). They revel in the fact that they’re an instrumental duo, to be sure. They describe themselves as a “maximalist two-piece,” which is certainly true—Cronk surrounds and fills the space with his manic guitar shredding while Drake propels it with his frenetic, barely controlled drumming. There’s still a good deal of sonic real estate to be decorated here, though, and it’s not all noise all the time. Both of these gentlemen have a solid enough grasp of dynamics to spar with the best of them, stepping in and out of their amped-up math-rock workouts to bask in synthesizer-led ambient soundscapes.
I have always likened Lucius Fox’s music to that of John Coltrane’s posthumous opus Interstellar Space, in which Coltrane and drummer Rashied Ali create a free-jazz odyssey centered around the solar system. While there are fewer overt astronomical themes on this album, a shadow of it always remains in their sound, exemplified by their astral synths and octave-divided guitar lines. Cronk and Drake have the telepathic sense of jazz musicians, each deeply attuned to the other’s biological sense of rhythm and tonality. Never has this communion been more apparent than on The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, where the two musicians achieve nirvana through their combined discipline and ambition.
To me, it seems relatively banal to run through each track in detail, as this double-record set is truly more of an overall experience. Throughout the seven songs contained within, Cronk and Drake charge through a range of emotions, alternately conjuring the awe of Michigan’s natural offerings and the tragedy brought about by their destruction, the music a mirror to Cronk’s own personal arc throughout the past year and change. It’s a powerful thing to behold, certainly one to be taken in with undivided attention. As the final mournful notes of an acoustic guitar fade away at the end of “Lake Isle Memorial (Reprise),” the listener is left only with the sound of waves crashing over the shore, a token of hope for better things to come.
Written by Jacob Simons
