Lumerians are best filed under space rock. However you can forget about a standard 4/4 drum beat + bass riff + guitar noodling, Lumerians are a stranger breed. They’re closer to soundtrack music. So, soundtrack space rock it is.
1 – Dogon Genesis
Harping organs and tribal percussion usher the album under the way. Swooning vocals that echo and shimmer. Hot pulses enter the equation and seduce. Radiophonic workshop washes caress. Bass stabs. The groove digs in. As you reach the plateau something is tickling your third eye. An organ solo rises in conjunction with Orion. Languid guitar. Ipcress File screeches.
2 – High Frontier
Percussion, looping guitar and bass come together. Nagging flutters of sound. Pace increases to Gerry Anderson levels. Thudding bass. Dance drum beats join with twanging guitars. Laid back and hi-tempo at the same time, true psych brothers and sisters. Feel that? It’s your brain pulling in two opposite directions…
3 – The Bloom
Electro-pop synths. Rockabilly on ketamine guitar. Drums pick up the pace. Synths rise and fall. Vocals like a garbled radio transmission from the Bermuda triangle. Alarms tripped; there must be a killer robot on the loose! Luckily the drums batter it in into submission. Squalls of sound like mechanical seagulls.
4 – Koman Tong
Sci fi pulsars lurch and massively processed vocals offer further melody. A Gong… What? All of a sudden it sounds like a slow Roxy Music party jam.
5 – Smokies Tangle
Crisp drums, slobbering bass and synths pass by like an arcing spaceship passing serenely overhead, scraping snow off the mountaintops. Shift of gear as things turn into a dance around the camp fire, with music provided by pastoral krautrock in the vein of Harmona. High as a kite guitar looks down. Synths wave a tentacle up at the sky. The the party breakdowns. Flown too high, gone too far, everyone fine? Let’s get going with a slow probing guitar, pinging as inquisitive creatures stare at you from the undergrowth. Underwater tribal drums and keyboard washes serenade from Closer era Joy Division. Guitar goes motorik.
6 – Life Without Skin
Talking Heads have been at the caffeine. It starts mewing, slow and ominous. It demands attention. Insistent and twanging. Another change of pace in the drums turn jazz levels of cool. Short keys ~ long keys. Underscore it with funky drums. Then it changes again, time for vocal harmonies? Organs drop in and drop out and disintegrate as they coalesce. Twin suns shine through the clouds upon the hot orange desert.
7 – is hard to spell
Sample time. The bass is dancing around the overtly loud snare drum and the electronics are making a speech. When do the Earthmen come with their bad acting? This pagan party is going on a while as the locals dance in praise of their local deity. Let’s leave them to it.
It’s over? Is that it? I don’t know if the good guys won!
Lumerians sound truly unique but for some reason Closer era Joy Division springs to mind, except with more percussion, 2 guitarists, Tangerine Dream on synths and were making a krautock album. Or maybe think Eno era Roxy Music scoring films based on the works of Iain M Banks.
Inventive and unpredictable whilst never becoming self-indulgent or unlistenable, this is a top drawer psych band. Songs seems to change tack every minute taking the listener to new, exciting places.
If you want to see vapour trails as tendrils wrap around your ankles, then investigate this astounding, amazing album…
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