Lusts

'Illuminations' - Album Review | 8/10.

Hailing from Leicester, Andy and James Stone have so far been pretty explicit in their trajectory. The sepia toned pictures, the videos filmed by hand held camcorders, fuzzy visuals all scream out that they come from a psychedelic place.

Driven by records much older than they, Lusts are more than happy to show off what's informed this debut. The DNA of The Psychedelic Furs, Echo and Bunnymen, pre-Kick era INXS and New Order run heavily through this album (there’s even a track called “Temptation”, which is just as ear-wormy as Barney and co’s track of the same name).

In the wrong hands this kind of influence devotion can, of course, be a derivative and futile exercise. Luckily, Illuminations is a solid collection of mid-80s college rock, jangle, shoegaze and pop which, despite being recorded in their bedroom, contains some of the biggest choruses this side of Florence and the Machine.

The likes of “Sometimes”, “Careless” and the yearn-pop highlight “Don’t Kiss Me” show that despite the aloof presentation of them as band, they’re just slightly soppy, slightly silly romantics. Lines such as “Playing on my mind / I want you by my side” from the former, and the latter’s “If you’re losing your way and you wanted to stay don’t kiss me” might seem a little contrite, but they’re delivered with such conviction that you can’t help but want to throw yourself into their arms.

For people of a certain age (i.e. probably not yours), Illuminations throws up all kind of thoughts of memories; John Hughes films, one hit wonder rock bands like The Railway Children or Then Jericho (who back in the late 80’s could infiltrate the top ten), filtered through the fuzz-ometer of William Reid and Kevin Shields to fuck the sound up a bit.

The person responsible for said sound fuck ups is MJ (from Hookworms, not the dead one) whose production work provides an interesting juxtaposition which is absolutely key to the album’s success. You expect these kind of euphoric indie pop songs to have the kind of shrill, highly compressed, over-produced gloss favoured by the likes of Hurts, but his understated approach gives Illuminations an overall feel of the first play of a long lost cassette that’s been gathering dust in the loft for a decade or two. - Line Of Best Fit

As they premiere the video for new single 'Waves' (below), rising Leicester siblings Lusts tell Kevin EG Perry about the advantages to being directionless – and falling asleep at David Bowie exhibitions...

It was while trawling round Paris in search of the ghosts of Oscar Wilde and Ernest Hemingway that Andy Stone and his younger brother James were inspired to start a band. “We met some cool people and ended up going to loads of parties,” says Andy. “We realised it’s not just about visiting these old haunts, it’s about finding the equivalent scene now.”

They did seek inspiration from decadent French poet Rimbaud though, even if they couldn’t actually understand him. “James bought me Rimbaud’s Illuminations for my birthday, but he bought the French edition by mistake,” explains Andy. “We wrote a song based on what we envisioned the book might be about. One of the good things about being brothers is that it doesn’t matter so much when one of us does something fucking weird, it can still spark something off.”

Returning to their parents’ house in Leicester, the brothers set up a projector in their bedroom so they could compose music while playing along to their favourite films. “We’d watch Lost In Translation, Mulholland Drive or Wild Things and see what ideas were conjured up,” says Andy. “Wild Things was pretty weird, but everything else worked quite well."

Their choice of films will give you a clue to the music they make: hazy, dreamlike post-punk with a strong new-wave influence. “We take inspiration from a lot of new stuff as well,” points out Andy. “We love people like Alvvays, Soko and Ariel Pink and ambient stuff like Aphex Twin and Brian Eno. We try to combine those things with a driving rhythm, so we can go off in any direction. I like the idea of being free to do whatever the fuck we want.”

Having written a whole album in their bedroom, they then took it to the studio of Hookworms’ MJ to mix and re-record. “We love the way MJ got the record to sound,” says James. It was only after this had come together that the brothers found a name that summed up their direction. “We wanted it to be a feeling, and we liked ‘lust’ because it’s ambiguous,” says James. “You're not sure if it's good or bad, but it's definitely potent."

BELIEVE IT OR NOT While in Paris for recent shows the band’s label took them to see the ‘David Bowie Is’ exhibition at the Philharmonie de Paris – but Andy missed it because he fell asleep in a fountain outside. “I was in a bad way,” he says. - NME

This somehow bleakly upbeat song comes from Leicester sibling duo Lusts. Comprising of Andy and James Stone, the pair have created a world of simultaneous abrasiveness and brightness, the sonic equivalent to happy memory-conjuring photographs: damaged by handling and inherent decay, sun-bleached, creased, but still representing the detached comfort of an idyllic past.

Soaked with reverb and backed by a driving rattlesome beat, 'Mouthwash' swells with soaring sweeps of fluid-scratchy guitar and unstoppable tides of softening background ambience, the vocals amiable and full of feeling, seemingly sung from the gut, sounding perfect making themselves heard in the wild whirpooly crescendo towards the end. - The 405