Opening with ‘Ocean City Groove’, Singing Rock Lake establishes itself as an album filled with a range of influences. We could reel off names like Boards Of Canada, Death In Vegas, Royksopp, and the more obscure sounds of Finland’s Paavoharju.
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‘Girls Of Malibu Canyon’ has a dark, energetic and at times pummeling groove that gives an overall roundness to its sound, while ‘Pale Face Streets’ is more driving, glacial, and fluorescent in its tone. This tone continues on ‘Night Flight From Electro City’ with its characterful brass and twanging pianos, while ‘Visions Of A Light Rum Sea’ offers a more bombastic guitar that comes close at times to shred metal. ‘Santa Fe’ continues with the album’s overall sense of driving forward to a destination, just as does ‘Lovers On Sunset Strip’ with its squeezed, splintered guitar that is crunchy and emotive, while ‘Moon Siren’ is spacey and psychedelic with phased tomes and a whole load of room around it, as if played in the middle of a canyon. ‘Moonlight Over Florida’ keeps going with the energetic guitars and underlays them with a wash of synths that act as a watery support that carries the track along powerfully, but never against its will. ‘Don’t Ever Love Me Ginger’ brings in more lounge tones, with jazzy brass tones and a laid back piano that sounds as if it’s keen to go off and do its own thing at any moment, while ‘Ghost In The Jar’ puts a deeply atmospheric evolving pad to good use, airy and creepy as it shifts around in the speakers as if it is trying to escape its confines. Closing with ‘Streets Of The Sacred Heart’, Singing Rock Lake’ comes to its end with a laid back and relaxing track that takes a simple melody and uses it to wind down the album to its final ending point.
By Chris Marsh
