AU
BOTH LIGHTS
Aficionados of art school rock should be over the moon to hear AU’s latest release Both Lights. On it, members Dana Vlkatka and Luke Wyland borrow liberally from gypsy folk, indie rock, noise and jazz and their ability to blend it all into retro-futuristic space music is admirable. But not all is rosy. At times it sounds like AU are giving the indie-rock treatment to Philip Glass’s Koyaanisquatsi soundtrack. It works well enough, but sometimes I imagine people scurrying off a bank of escalators if I listen for too long. This sense of going nowhere fast is exacerbated by the sheer volume of stylistic changes. Both Lights lacks the kind of focus that modern classical demands. There is no “I finally get it” moment that listeners get from John Cage or Terry Riley. Vlkatka and Wyland have musical chops but I wish they would focus more on creating a flow inducing experience and reign in some of wild genre-blending. (Hometapes) by Andrew Coulon