^uh sorry, iPhone
― make like a steak and beef (dog latin), Tuesday, 4 December 2012 22:48 (eleven years ago) link
The rhythms are not dubby.
Yes they are.
The echoes are not dubby
Dub doesn't have to be anything and doesn't have to be the thing you wanted or expected it to be, thankfully. It can be a shoegazy album with effects (not that i think this record is merely that). Saying that it sounds more like the Cocteaus than like a dub album does make me wonder if you have ears though.
― jed_, Tuesday, 4 December 2012 22:59 (eleven years ago) link
What? But that's like saying you don't have to be able to sit in a chair for it to be a chair. If I played you a Blur song and told you it was techno and then you said it wasn't techno, by this rationale I could say 'techno doesn't have to be the thing you want it to be'.
― make like a steak and beef (dog latin), Tuesday, 4 December 2012 23:02 (eleven years ago) link
dl i think you're being overly prescriptive, something can be dubby or dub-influenced without having much in the way of roots reggae signifiers. that said i think PL have plenty in the way of roots reggae signifiers (organ chords and percussion on the upbeats a lot of the time, 8th note heavy reggae-ish basslines, etc)
― have a sandwich or ice cream sandwich (Jordan), Tuesday, 4 December 2012 23:05 (eleven years ago) link
not sure if you (DL) are saying this after listening to the stream of the new one but it has a few tracks where the rhythms get fucked about w/ and are way less 'straight' than on Lucifer
― an area the size of Jimmy Wales (DJ Mencap), Tuesday, 4 December 2012 23:05 (eleven years ago) link
well DL Dunis is merely putting this out as a dubbier version of her recent record which is what this is. You're judging it against a claim that she hasn't even made for it.
FWIW i find it a bit exhausting to listen to although a couple of the incarnations seem better, on first listen, than the straight versions.
― jed_, Tuesday, 4 December 2012 23:11 (eleven years ago) link
Jordan otm. I wouldn't ever call Peaking Lights "dub", but I would definitely say that they are heavily influenced by dub and that is made pretty obvious by the music.
― HAPPY BDAY TOOTS (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 4 December 2012 23:11 (eleven years ago) link
I don't see how Peaking Lights' use of the word "dub" is in any way more controversial than a billion artists before them - early Seefeel strikes me as being a good point of comparison in this regard.
― Tim F, Tuesday, 4 December 2012 23:16 (eleven years ago) link
I'm listening to this now, Live Love as it happens, and seriously, these rhythms are no more dubby than anything else with a drum machine track and a bassline on it. In fact the beats land in a very grid-like way. I just don't see how this has any more of a dub influence than anything else with the odd phaser or echo effect thrown in. I don't think the note choices are particularly of classic dub, and besides the basslines are played really quite fast. If there's any sort of West Indian influence it would be something like early-mid '90s Bim Sherman type stuff which is more digital dancehall. Cosmic Tides, now yeah I guess the bassline is kind of dubby. But shit, it's a very plain and staid impression of dub. I can't help feeling it misses much of the point. But that's my opinion I guess.I'll grant you the cocteau's comparison is tenuous though - it's more to do with the use of drum machines and dreamy female vox.
― make like a steak and beef (dog latin), Tuesday, 4 December 2012 23:18 (eleven years ago) link
Fwiw I'm talking about lucifer
― make like a steak and beef (dog latin), Tuesday, 4 December 2012 23:19 (eleven years ago) link
That was a few xposts.
― make like a steak and beef (dog latin), Tuesday, 4 December 2012 23:21 (eleven years ago) link
936 was much more overtly dub influenced so if you've heard that one first it's easier to hear the bits of it that are still there in Lucifer
― dmr, Tuesday, 4 December 2012 23:22 (eleven years ago) link
check out the new one linked above (the, uh, dub versions) or 936
xp
― have a sandwich or ice cream sandwich (Jordan), Tuesday, 4 December 2012 23:23 (eleven years ago) link
seefeel use the dub to achieve a kind of stasis, though. this seems a bit manic but that's a fairly typical form of dub too. it's actually fairly close to the mad professor's take on protection but without the production chops imo. this is a bit headachy for me.
― jed_, Tuesday, 4 December 2012 23:24 (eleven years ago) link
but "no protection" is too.
a bit headachy, i mean.
― jed_, Tuesday, 4 December 2012 23:25 (eleven years ago) link
Dunis is merely putting this out as a dubbier version of her recent record which is what this is
according to the press bumph the dub edits were Coyes' work - not sure if she had any further involvement
― an area the size of Jimmy Wales (DJ Mencap), Tuesday, 4 December 2012 23:28 (eleven years ago) link
Xpost Well... I guess it's hard to separate dub signifiers from reggae signifiers anyway(for me at least). I always found dubstep to be a ponderous term because, despite the deep basslines an echoes, I couldn't really equate it with dub as far as my view of it went, if you see what I mean. As I say, dub for me in it's most vital sense is as much about the ebb and flow and 'feel' as it is about the rumbling bass and echoes because the latter two elements are pretty much ubiquitous throughout contemporary music anyway.
― make like a steak and beef (dog latin), Tuesday, 4 December 2012 23:29 (eleven years ago) link
I def wanna check out the dub versions of these.
― make like a steak and beef (dog latin), Tuesday, 4 December 2012 23:30 (eleven years ago) link
see i think what you like is actually reggae
― have a sandwich or ice cream sandwich (Jordan), Tuesday, 4 December 2012 23:31 (eleven years ago) link
Never a truer word said ;-)
― make like a steak and beef (dog latin), Tuesday, 4 December 2012 23:34 (eleven years ago) link
But i can hear the dub influence in, for example Primal Scream's Vanishing Point and a lot of Andrew Weatherall's work, and little of that has much to do with reggae on an explicit level
― make like a steak and beef (dog latin), Tuesday, 4 December 2012 23:38 (eleven years ago) link
fwiw i don't like peaking lights as much as i think i could and the poor (imo) production values are the barrier. even in those podcasts she put out, 6 hours of mixes (i use the word loosely) some amazing track selections but woeful sequencing & jarring segues. that was obviously what she was going for though, for some reason.
― jed_, Tuesday, 4 December 2012 23:38 (eleven years ago) link
The word "dub" was also used in the 1980s for instrumental versions of vocal club tracks. A lot of these "dubs" weren't really all that "dubby".
― brimstead, Tuesday, 4 December 2012 23:43 (eleven years ago) link
it's 'he' that does all those mixes iirc
― have a sandwich or ice cream sandwich (Jordan), Tuesday, 4 December 2012 23:44 (eleven years ago) link
ah ok.
― jed_, Tuesday, 4 December 2012 23:46 (eleven years ago) link
lol dog latin how do you feel about the term 'dub techno'?
― akadarbarijava (psychgawsple), Wednesday, 5 December 2012 02:28 (eleven years ago) link
confused because it means different things to different people. are we talking, like, Basic Channel or Dreadzone or what?
― make like a steak and beef (dog latin), Wednesday, 5 December 2012 10:56 (eleven years ago) link
usually people mean dreadzone, when they talk about dub techno yes.
who are basic channel, btw?
― Heterocyclic ring ring (LocalGarda), Wednesday, 5 December 2012 11:01 (eleven years ago) link
how'd you get to be so smart, ronan?
― make like a steak and beef (dog latin), Wednesday, 5 December 2012 11:17 (eleven years ago) link
http://rateyourmusic.com/genre/Dub+Techno/
― make like a steak and beef (dog latin), Wednesday, 5 December 2012 11:27 (eleven years ago) link
more like dreadfulzone amirite
― Albert Crampus (NickB), Wednesday, 5 December 2012 11:28 (eleven years ago) link
this is great! i didn't realize it was mastered by sonic boom before, but that makes a lot of sense.
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 9 January 2013 15:46 (eleven years ago) link
finally checked out Lucifer In Dub. not really any reason to listen to it instead of just putting on Lucifer imo.
― dmr, Monday, 14 January 2013 21:55 (eleven years ago) link
new one kinda sux :-(
― the late great, Thursday, 2 October 2014 02:50 (ten years ago) link
sounds like tom tom club, sort of, just not good
― the late great, Thursday, 2 October 2014 02:52 (ten years ago) link
huh ... I do think Breakdown sounds like Tom Tom Club but in a good way ... haven't heard the whole record
― dmr, Thursday, 2 October 2014 03:02 (ten years ago) link
having a hard time getting through this. i feel like if you have a singer who is, let's say, 'not conventionally good', you have to take a lot more care to flatter them. the vocals sound uncomfortably exposed here since the music is so much more stripped down.
musically it sounds like record collector late '70s/early '80s electro funk to me, which is cool i guess, but not nearly as appealing to me as 936-style diy dub.
― festival culture (Jordan), Thursday, 2 October 2014 15:43 (ten years ago) link
i read the tom tom club comments and got really excited for a second because i mistakenly thought i had the grouper thread open instead of the peaking lights thread
― james brooks, Thursday, 2 October 2014 17:41 (ten years ago) link
Breakdown stands heads and shoulders above the rest of this, which is nice enough but not brilliant and the vocals are definitely much more of an issue here.
― boxedjoy, Thursday, 2 October 2014 19:59 (ten years ago) link
this record by some labelmates of mine captures a similar feeling to early PL, imo (also happen to be a married duo): https://hushhushrecords.bandcamp.com/album/secret-angles
― festival culture (Jordan), Thursday, 2 October 2014 22:44 (ten years ago) link
Not that we really need anymore proof that the NME are utterly useless but this review shows just how little they even try anymore.
http://www.nme.com/reviews/peaking-lights/15687
― Kitchen Person, Sunday, 12 October 2014 04:00 (ten years ago) link
That cannot be a review of the same record I've listened to.
― boxedjoy, Sunday, 12 October 2014 09:15 (ten years ago) link
The first line made me smile.
I really wanted to like this record :-/
― Tim F, Sunday, 12 October 2014 10:28 (ten years ago) link
is there something obvious I'm missing about that review that makes it bad enough to be highlighted for scorn? just reads like a completely standard downpager to me
― well-behaved wingmen really hate Mystery (DJ Mencap), Sunday, 12 October 2014 11:04 (ten years ago) link
Most obviously, the reviewer is totally unaware that they made an album in between 936 and this one.
― Tim F, Sunday, 12 October 2014 11:12 (ten years ago) link
Yeah that's basically why I thought it was such a half arsed review. When you're writing a review that is so short surely checking your facts would be a must.
― Kitchen Person, Sunday, 12 October 2014 14:04 (ten years ago) link
lol gotcha
need to give the new one some proper attention, all I took in from a couple of spins thus far was that it sounds much more polished
― well-behaved wingmen really hate Mystery (DJ Mencap), Sunday, 12 October 2014 15:26 (ten years ago) link
It pains me to say things like this, because I really like this band, but this new one isn't for me at all. I'll still buy the next one, but, err, three tries with this and I think I dislike it more each time. That "telephone call from space" song is awful. Why do smart people write lyrics like this??
― Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Saturday, 18 October 2014 21:14 (ten years ago) link
I feel like the Lucifer in Dub EP might be their best work. Really plays to their strengths (ie not songwriting/vocals although I enjoy them in spots).
― klonman, Wednesday, 29 July 2015 22:31 (nine years ago) link