Lately I’ve been trying to open myself up to different types of music. Not that I don’t listen to a lot of genres, but there are certain things I’ve neglected: electronic/ambient, psych-rock, jazz. All perfectly fine musical styles that I’ve just ignored over the years. Mainly I’ve just had a hard time connecting to them, especially electronic because I feel that there’s a certain detachment inherent to the music.
One group that has helped me ease my way in a bit is Love And Radiation. I think it’s the duo’s background as singer/songwriters that keeps the music relatable. The music has a lot of layers, but it doesn’t feel overwhelming like some industrial music. I posted a couple songs a while back that acted as a bit of a preview of the new record, You Will Know Me. It comes out tomorrow (April 9th), and I think you should pick it up!
Adele Nicholas and Lakshmi Ramgopal do a great job marrying their voices to the music. In a lot of their contemporaries music the vocals are often quite airy, floating above the instruments in an ethereal way. Here, as on the song “Augary,” there’s a presence felt in the music. The vocals carry the weight of emotion needed to make a connection to the listener.
My favorite song off You Will Know Me is the closer, “Look For My Sign.” Some of the album delves into darker territory, but here we get a silver lining through the gloom. In my opinion this is the best vocal performance on the album. There’s some beautiful imagery described in the lyrics, and I find something new in it each time I listen.
My one problem with the record is that it’s too short. At a bit under 30 minutes, these eight tracks don’t give us enough time to explore the world Love And Radiation have created. It’s probably a nitpick because if the songs had all been five or six minutes I’d probably complain about the self-indulgent running time. It’s just that there are a lot of interesting things going on here, and I wish they would have been looked into a bit deeper.
Love And Radiation will be at The Hideout here in Chicago on April 11th (Tix), then they hit the east coast for some dates from April 25-May 3. You can preorder You Will Know Me from their website.