At the start of the year, Finland’s Lighthouse Sparrows, a favourite of this website, released the first part (Alpha) of an EP, Dark Matter. You can see a review of this by clicking on the button provided.
As my review noted, it dealt with some very interesting themes, and was certainly quite sparse and dark in its thematic.
With Beta, we have four brand new tracks to finish the EP off, and immediately let me say that it also comes highly recommended. Olli Huhtanen and Sami Sarhamaa create an atmospheric delight, and as the notes at https://lighthousesparrows.bandcamp.com/album/dark-matter-beta make clear, this is more optimistic in tone, with some clarity for the subject of the work going forward. The duo is joined by Miri Miettinen on drums, and Valtteri Tuominen with backing vocals.
We open with Surrogates, and I just love the deep bassline created by Sarhamaa on this. As the track develops, the drums provide for a racing thump. The guitar work is very strong, heavily bright, and I like the effects, at times very futuristic, created by Huhtanen and the closing notes are full of eastern mystery.
Dent de Lions, Lion’s Tooth, or as it is translated in modern times, dandelion. The subject is hoping for a revelation, some form of hope in an opening which is electronically minimalist, some of the keys quietly industrial, but the vocals talking about the daisies and dry weeds piercing through the dry concrete are really touching, and I take this as alluding to the fact that life can and does survive in even the harshest conditions. It is embedded below.
No Excuses is the penultimate piece. Any fan of electronic music should lap this up, the keyboards creating such a soundscape alongside some fine guitar riffs, and I find the lyrics interesting, with the subject being unable to name many accomplishments, and acknowledging there are no excuses for this. He tries, but it never seems to come off. But importantly, he keeps rising again, and the delicate keys and piano at that stage are decidedly sunnier, a nod to the persistence and stoicism required to simply get through life sometimes. High hopes are important, and I think this is a wonderful piece of music rooted in the human experience, the orchestration at the end rather thoughtful, almost mournful.
We finish with Signs, the longest track at five and a half minutes. I have embedded this below, and you are struck by the complexity of the keyboard work and a melodic bassline accompanying, with a vocal which really does recall some of Morrissey’s work (this is not, incidentally, meant in anything other than a complimentary manner. I was quite a fan of The Smiths and his early solo work), with the subject too scared to be true to himself, a form of self-deprecation those familiar with the Salford band will instantly recognise what I am referring to here, and the lyrics about no rulers in sight being a decent choice with too many captains on board are something I easily relate to in my day job working for the government machine. There is a sense of looking and moving forward on this track, the subject coming through the other side, standing astride his mind’s vessel with some hope, the closing chords very much reflecting this.
The EP is definitely two halves, and it is now plain to see why they split the release in two. Taken as a whole, we have a very sumptuous work, dealing firstly with mistakes, mental bleakness, wanting to go back, before the theme reasserts the capacity we have to turn things around, acknowledge what has passed, accept it, and move on, all this in a sound which is so rooted in modern rock.
A delight, and highly recommended.