There’s a moment – well nearly eight minutes if you are counting – when in the company of ‘Rowley Way Overlook’ you are transported to a place in some hither to as yet unclassified and undiscovered south pacifica hideaway where sun scorched skies smoulder to a glow, a place where the lulling overture of ‘Sailing By’ wallows and opines upon sea bound hazy dream dazed mirages shorn in petal trimmed cascades that lazily lilt to the woozing echo of tropicalia motifs dinked in the lullaby arrangements of Raymond Scott and cultured by an ear whose familiarity with the aural swoons ushered by the genteel turntable coo of savoured platters by the likes of the Seahawks, Toshack Highway, J Caverre and that undeniable exquisite ’Monsterism’ collage.
Welcome kindly traveller to Modular Living the third full length set from Eat Lights Become Lights. Not wishing to damn with faint praise, but with the onset of Modular Living Eat Lights have turned a corner, an album so telling of a creative unit comfortable in their own skin and well versed in cinematic ambition. No strangers to these missives we’ve been tracking these Kosmische Kadets since they first reared up on our hi-fi way back in 2008 with their debuting ‘They Transmit’ 7 inch for enraptured.
During that time they’ve piloted an aural trajectory across the vast sonic realms engaging in turn to tail gate elements of old school Krautrock and nu school cosmic ambience and so doing sees them applying an expansive sound to their canvas. Modular Living comes pressed on both CD via Rocket Girl and on a limited run wax pressing via the arty and highly eye catching great pop supplement house where it comes decorated in a by all accounts fetching striped clear / white variant. To describe Modular Living in short is to imagine it traversing some distant point in a far off galaxy, the sound of lost transmissions reaching their home land light years after their initial despatch, sumptuously dipped in retro regalia of which nine star kissed suites sit sighing upon stellar grooves whose sound is akin to some aural archaeological dig unearthing primitive remnants from electronicas infancy. Shimmered in a nocturnal framing and coded in squirrelling cosmedelic flurries Modular Living is a glorious effervescent lunar promenade waltz as were piloted by Meek and lushly housed in mesmerising star crushed carnivals powered by motorik murmurs all glazed in 70’s styled space age sirens.
‘Mod-ulo-510‘ finds them touching base with distraction records own lunar lords the warm digits somewhat sharing an affectionate mindset for the tangerine dream. Somewhere else ’Loss Feliz to Griffith’ sees ELBL really stepping up to the plate and expanding their palette, dream dipped in celestial haloes signed to the demur of cantering keys with a cinematic poise this could easily be Antonymes running to embrace fortdax amid some pastoral cosmica while framed upon a softly lit pulsar the gaseous vapour trailing ’Life in a Sprawl’ mainlines succulently on the cruise controlled serenity of 90 degrees south. And while both ’Chiba Prefecture’ and ’Electromagnetika’ offer a brace of pristinely calibrated Kraut sourced ELBL groove subtly gouged in library music kaleidoscopia and both braided in their by now trademark steady progression from genteel to grand sound it’s the parting cut ’Habitat ’67’ (along with the aforementioned ’Rowley way Overlook’) that endow the ELBL sound canvas with a wider and more illuminating sonic spectrum to provide the album’s centrepiece and in some respects mark a shift in perspective given its uplifting visitation as were of arcing arrangements and multi tracked string cortèges sweetly serenading the heavens – quite blissful if you ask me.
Next expected transmission from Eat Lights Becomes Lights sees them appearing on the newly augmented great pop supplement off shoot boutique imprint deep distance – more about this imprint in a second or two. Typically eye catching this 12 inch release comes pressed up on hulking heavy duty slabs of wax and features the imprints newly designed company sleeves. Should say it’s a split release with the Eat Lights half serviced by the parting Modular Living cut ’Habitat ’67’ whilst occupying the reverse side e-Six By Seven main man Chris Olley under his newly acquired twelve guise imbues the grooves with a spot of Can styled motorik murmurs.
[Rating:4]
