don't let me go

American Interior

More Than Any Other Day

Habit

City Music

Aboard My Train

Crybaby

Loma

If you ever wondered what’d happen if two best friends who share a collective mission to not take life too seriously spent just as much time soaking up the muddy blues of Mississippi as they did the kosmisch experimentations of West Germany (the pair also play in Krautrock collective Datashock) then Pretty Lightning are your answer. Unsurprising, then, that as often as their sound is indeed full to the brim with crunch, swagger and feedback, they’re also just capable as easing off on that oft-abused accelerator and dealing in something more far hypnotic and drone-like.

The reverberating slow-burner, ‘Greyhound’, is exactly one such moment. Just like the video that comes with it, it’s the sonic equivalent of hitching a long motorcycle road you never want to end–only, as in said visuals, the landscape you’re cruising through happens to be somewhere weird, cartoonish and, true to form, psychedelic-as-hell. The band says of the single: “Greyhound is pure escapism - one fantasy of it, anyway. It’s probably our most pop-pleasing song so far too, even if that’s not the direction we’re generally heading into. If you think that sometimes it´s ok to treat yourself to a fantasy, why not take the imagination of an eternal ride and stick it in a 4 minute ‘pop-song’”

Pretty Lightning - Greyhound

The Problem of Leisure: A celebration of Andy Gill and Gang of Four

Paralysed (feat. Gang of Four)

Loma began as a serendipitous collaboration between Emily Cross, the multi-talented musician and recording engineer Dan Duszynski, and Shearwater frontman Jonathan Meiburg. They’d capped a grueling tour with a standout performance on a packed beach at Sub Pop’s SPF 30 festival, in which Cross leapt into the crowd, and then into the sea, while the band carried on from the stage—an emotional peak that also felt like a natural ending. 
 
Following the tour, Cross went to rural Mexico to work on visual art and a solo record, while Meiburg began a new Shearwater effort. After a few months apart, the trio reconvened at Duszynski’s home in rural Texas, where they began to develop songs that would become Don’t Shy Away. Loma writes by consensus, and though Cross is always the singer, she, Duszynski and Meiburg often trade instruments.  Meiburg compares their process to using an ouija board and says the songs revealed themselves slowly. “In Loma, nobody wears the crown, so we have to trust each other—and we end up in places none of us would have gone on our own. I think we all wanted to experience that again.” The album that emerged is gently spectacular—a vivid work whose light touch belies its timely themes of solitude, impermanence, and finding light in deep darkness. 
 
A series of guests contributed to the absorbing soundscapes of Don’t Shy Away, including touring members Emily Lee (piano, violin) and Matt Schuessler (bass) and Flock of Dimes/Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner.

Joy

Loma