Lyndhurst - Platforms

A Closer Listen

We love summer music, so when the new U.K. duo Lyndhurst sent us their first single, “Swimming,” we made sure to include it in our article, Ten Tracks That Sound Like Summer.  The duo describes the single as an “electronic hug,” and we couldn’t agree more.  It’s a perfect track for a beach drive, windows down, cooler packed, new swimsuit waiting to be worn.  The entrance of brass at the halfway mark is like the first glimpse of the ocean after a long winter away.  Then the chimes, like sunlight reflecting from swim buoys.  And it’s not even the EP’s best track!  That award goes to second single “Transcriptor,” which starts with sunny glockenspiel before adding percussion and clarinet, breaking down beautifully to highlight the mallets late in the piece.  If “Swimming” is the sea, “Transcriptor” is the sun.  These tracks are reminiscent of the more ebullient pieces of Jilk and Haiku Salut, which dance between modern composition and electronics, smiling all the way.

But wait ~ let’s not pigeonhole the duo so early.  They prove capable of a wide range of timbres, building “North Circular” around a frightening sample of a preacher who chants, “No weapons!”  With the world on edge as it is – even more so in recent weeks – the track seems prescient.  The opening beats are harder, the later beats slower, the tone more melancholic.  Oboe provides the undertow, while electronic shards contribute the feel of something breaking.  There’s even some light tambourine. Oscar Ball and Dan Carney once worked on library music for Lo Editions, and their crate-digging mentality can be heard in these grooves.  “Group of Three” is the cut closest to library music, though the track would also nestle comfortably on one of Lo’s chill compilations.

The finale, “First Ever Thing,” is like an expanding horizon, promising more, and indeed more is on the way; the duo’s second EP, Caves, is promised in November.  We’re glad they didn’t wait until late fall to reveal themselves, as this music is a perfect soundtrack for right now.  (Richard Allen)