Cloudland Canyon: Lie In Light (Kranky CD/LP/digital)
The first time I really heard Cloudland Canyon, it was their previous EP, Silver Tongued Sisyphus. That EP was split in half, with the first leaning more toward sprawling, instrumental psychedelia and the second falling more in line with krautrock. I had assumed that the group would follow the more abstract side of their sound on their next album rather than the more traditional vocal/song structure. It turns out I was half-right.
Lie In Light is not a long album; just under 40 minutes long, it goes by rather quickly, but it suits the sort of narrative arc of their sound here well. They completely confounded my expectations with the opening track, "Krautwerk," which is full-on motorik Neu! krautrock at its finest. It chugs at a steady tempo for the duration before giving way to another vocal track, "White Woman," which glides on a hazy wall of guitar and drones. Much of the reverb-heavy vocals and layered drones recall old psych records (or even the most discordant, more improvisational moments of early Velvet Underground), which reinforces the sort of "other" quality Cloudland Canyon's music seems to have. "You & I" is even more immediate with a chugging, pulsing electronic rhythm section and a shimmering, radiant series of drones and chords that propel the track, but its final moments are more indicative of where the rest of the album is in fact heading; most of the more song-oriented arrangement falls away and a series of bending, wavering drones. This aesthetic carries through the next few tracks with the exception of the krautrock reprise in the latter half of "Heme," again with a certain 60s psych quality due to the sound and style of their vocals. "Mothlight Part 1" is perhaps the perfect closing track, opting out of the dense fog of the previous few tracks with a lovely, short pop song carried by the refrain, "Sometimes it's hard to go home again," a simple sentiment that is almost at odds with the ambiguity of the German lyrics found elsewhere on the album (at least for a non-German speaker like myself).
If Silver Tongued Sisyphus seemed like two disparate halves, Lie In Light seems to indicate that it was really just two sides of the same coin.
Members Kip Uhlhorn & Simon Wojan are able to rise up to the challenge of writing proper songs within the paradigm of their psychedelic storm, but they are just as comfortable submitting to their most basic impulses to let it all flow, often abandoning much of a structure at all and instead letting the music glide where it pleases. They manage to do a lot in 39 minutes, and my hat is off to their ability to ride the line so well, delivering upon expectations while still surprising.
mp3s: You & I | Lie In Light
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