Oakland, CA 5 piece Naked Lights has a brand new record out via Castle Face Records (WARNING: there is a flashing graphic on this label site that is not friendly to those of us with seizure tendencies). The band's genetic pool is embedded with post-punk rhythms, avant garde no wavery, and vocal jabs ALA Bow Wow Wow, Suburban Lawns, Pylon, and Bush Tetras. On Nature delivers a level of quality songwriting that will place it among the top tier of this genre; think: The Fall, Gang of Four, and This Heat's best album Deceit.
Among the groups two guitar players, one of them occasionally takes on a frantic early '90s post-hardcore bursts that could be taken from Rye Coalition's earliest recordings (Kitty cat, where's the money at?) but then its thrown into a blender with something much closer to the organized chaos of Pere Ubu and DNA or maybe a swarm of bees. Lyrical themes of the record include Werner Herzog rants, carnivore / omnivore ecosystems, and sexual tensions - all of which makes for a smart, artful, and interesting listening from start to finish.
This is the first release to make my 2016 best of list.
