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Lightspeed Champion

Falling Off The Lavender Bridge

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by RyanDaff on 03/14/2008

Lightspeed Champion is the brainchild of prolific talent Devonte Hynes, former Test Icicle. Recorded in Nebraska by the UK based songwriter with the help of an assortment of talented musician friends, ‘Lavender Bridge’ is a subtle, mostly acoustic affair, and a notable departure from the Test Icicles. What is most immediately apparent is the diversity of sounds, as evident by the fusion of a number of genres. Hynes incorporates the efforts of folk/country musicians he met in Omaha, as well as other UK based indie musicians – including Mike Siddell, formerly of Hope Of The States, on violin. These diverse outside-influences include the strings of ‘Galaxy Of The Lost’ and ‘Devil Trick For A Bitch’ (evoking ‘Eleanor Rigby’ on the latter); the plucky, folk-y acoustic guitar of ‘Tell Me What It’s Worth’ and ‘Dry Lips’; and the recurrent country feedback of opener ‘Number One’ and later track ‘Midnight Surprise’. Further experiments include a panpipe sound on ‘All To Shit’, recalling ‘Stairway To Heaven’. It is this rich assortment of musical components on the album that makes it unpredictable and sonically interesting, and, without delving too deeply into the specifics of the recording process, there is the added mystery of who exactly is playing what, or whether it was recorded in Omaha or in the UK, with assistance from Hynes’ more well-known label mates.

All this experimentation, however, is firmly anchored by Hynes’ own distinctly English-sounding vocal style, and his default, untampered-with sound is pure contemporary indie, at times recalling Bloc Party or The Klaxons. It is these comparisons that slightly lessen the wow-factor of the guest instrumentals and studio tinkering, which have admittedly given these otherwise fairly familiar songs an impressive boost. There is also a hint of Arctic Monkeys (which let's face it, is an unfavourable comparison for this type of album), in the choppy guitar of ten-minute-epic ‘Midnight Surprise’’s first half – a song that nearly ends with a rousing hair-metal guitar solo, before Hynes reins it in for a more tasteful acoustic guitar and strings finale. What remains obvious throughout all this though, is Hynes’s inventiveness as a musician, and his willingness to experiment with a song’s structure and key musical parts – and the results are generally impressive.

by Ryan Daff

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Album Details

Year: 2008
Label: Domino
Producer: Mike Mogis
Musicians: Devonte Hynes et al

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Tracklist

1	Number One
2	Galaxy Of The Lost
3	Tell Me What It's Worth
4	All To Shit
5	Midnight Surprise
6	Devil Tricks For A Bitch
7	I Could Have Done This Myself
8	Salty Water
9	Dry Lips
10	Everyone I Know Is Listening To Crunk
11	Let The Bitches Die
12	No Suprises (For Wendela)/Midnight Surprise

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