Sleek, streamlined, masterfully engineered, headed to its destination with impressive velocity, the music of lotusbliss comes on like a bullet train: fast, powerful, unswerving, built for the long haul. The group’s electronically-enhanced version of indie rock is made to get you where you want to go – and maybe to take to places you’ve never dreamed of.
Brothers Seth, Josh, and Adam aren’t just strong songwriters, they’re expert soundscapers, too, and they know that a great recording is a form of transportation. On their EP A Good Death Is A Beautiful Thing, the Kent, UK siblings demonstrate their mastery of pop-rock arrangement and their deep understanding of sonic beauty. No matter how rough they play it – and they do occasionally move with force – their music radiates poise, majesty, and a sense of inevitability.
Of course, they haven’t done it alone. They’ve been assisted in the realization of their unique sound by producer Josh Rumble, the bassist, songwriter, and resident dreamscaper for London indie-pop band Anteros. “Beautiful Monotone,” their first collaboration with Rumble, earned immediate praise for its striking sound from the UK pop cognoscenti. The track was called “cinematic,” “beautiful,” and “emotional,” and noted for the accomplishment of the instrumentalists and the otherworldly harmonies of the singers.
It’s not inaccurate to say that “Carpet”, the latest track from lotusbliss, picks up right where “Beautiful Monotone” leaves off. But really, it’s more of an acceleration – an intensification of everything that makes lotusbliss such an exciting new band. The track drifts like a reverie: there’s a treated, coolly-reverbed guitar lick, artfully muffled but propulsive drums, synthesizers decorating the spaces between the beats, and the radiant harmonies that have become a lotusbliss signature. Underpinning the entire track is a creeping sense of peril and instability, something teetering precariously on edge.
The band’s haunted clip for “Carpet” – produced and directed in-house by lotusbliss’ Josh Gauton – reinforces that feeling of danger. This is a tale of a kidnapping, complete with ominous slo-mo shots, gorgeous British countryside gloom, and even a few acts of stylish violence. Like lotusbliss’s music, it’s moody and intoxicating, even when everybody involved is determined to throw the viewer off balance. The lotusbliss brothers pull you into their frightening narrative – even as they make it clear to you that there’s no easy way out.
