Blogarhythms

During the days leading up to my birthday, as my trepidation at turning another decade older grew, a few people (mostly those who turn 30 themselves in the coming months) told me it wasn’t “that bad” because “30 is the new 20.” Being familiar with this cliché (which I’d like to personally banish to the “trite expression netherworld” alongside “preggers” and “va-jay-jay”) from it’s overuse in the media I wasn’t buying it. Now that I actually reside on the far-side of the 30-year-mark though I’m inclined to believe there’s some truth to the platitude. I’m not saying 30 really is the new 20. But if it isn’t something like that I probably shouldn’t be typing this at 9-something-AM while nursing a headache after staying up until 7 AM pursuing the company of a comely lass. The 29-year-old me surely would’ve slept until well after noon under such circumstances. Come to think of it, so would the 20-year-old me. So I guess that means 30 isn’t the new 20 at all, but something new altogether.

While it might be a long way to go for a segue, Texas-born, UK-based Devonte “Dev” Hynes, formerly of the Test Icicles, knows all about doing something “altogether new,” because that’s exactly what Lightspeed Champion, his new solo project, is. The short-lived Test Icicles, whose music was a hodgepodge of angular Post-Punk, jagged Metal, abrasive Noise, and crunchy electronics, where all three members shared singing duties, officially split in February of 2006 after releasing only a single LP, 2005’s For Screening Purposes Only, with Dev claiming “we were never, ever that keen on the music” in an interview with the NME. I was pretty keen on the music myself, and was sad to see the group disband, but was hopeful the band-members wouldn’t just disappear and might carry on their legacy somehow. As unorthodox as the Test Icicles limited output as a band was though, I wasn’t prepared for just how different Dev’s solo work is, not only from his former band, but from what anyone is likely to expect from him.

Linking up with Saddle Creek producer (and one of Conor Oberst’s collaborators in Bright Eyes) Mike Mogis in Omaha, Nebraska, an assemblage of musicians, including members of The Faint, Cursive, and Tilly and the Wall, as well as London-based Anti-Folk artist Emmy the Great, joined in fleshing out the songs which are to become Lightspeed Champion’s forthcoming debut LP Falling Off the Lavender Bridge. The album isn’t due until early in 2008 (and it’s already one of my most anticipated releases of the New Year) but two vinyl singles, “Galaxy of the Lost” and “Midnight Surprise,” and a five-song EP (also titled Galaxy of the Lost, which includes covers of hippie classic “The Flesh Failures,” and rollerdisco aria “Xanadu”) have been released via Domino Records. The music he’s made may be uncharacteristically twangy; mixing the Country & Western of his native Texas, traditional Folk, melodramatically emotional Indie-Rock, and lushly arranged Pop, but it’s put together in a decidedly progressive manner typical of an artist of his pedigree.

Even more progressive, and possibly more “odd” even than his sonic metamorphosis, are the accompanying video clips for the two singles.

Watch “Galaxy of the Lost”.

And

Watch “Midnight Surprise”.

-El Keter