PEAKING LIGHTS | ‘Key Sparrow’ Video

I love this new track, “Key Sparrow”, from Peaking Lights‘ latest eight-track album, “936″, released via Not Not Fun records. The album is one of the best I’ve heard this year, and a good listen for those of you who can’t get enough Zola Jesus or Nite Jewel. This Spring Green, California duo of Aaron Coyes and Indra Dunis, make music that drifts all over the map. It’s lo-fi, airy, tribal, dub, electronic, psychedelic, and enthralling. “Marshmellow Yellow” is a tripped out eight-plus minute track with tribal percussion, light touches of synth and Dunis’ hypnotic vocals rolling over the song like a soft wind. This band really can’t be pigeon-holed. Just as soon as they begin to sound like an avant-garde group with all their odd instrumentation and strange stylings, they disappear behind intricate melodies and addictive rhythms through piano, synth and sound repetitions. I’m marking “936″ down right now as one of my early candidates for Top Albums of 2011. “Amazing and Wonderful” does for the keyboard what “Key Sparrow” does for the guitar. The guitar of the latter sounds like a seagull’s squawk, playing gently and intermittently halfway between desert nightmare and child’s dream. These are songs to get lost in. Listen to the record at the band’s soundcloud page. You can purchase “936″ here.  – David D. Robbins Jr.