SBSR: Black City Lights “Parallels EP”

Black City Lights “Parallels EP”

Recently, I’ve been downloading and listening to music like crazy from Band Camp.   This is a review of a group of songs by the same band I got from Band Camp- usually it constitutes an EP.   This is a song-by-song review and it is never to exceed six songs.   At the end, I will tell you the “Recommended Downloading Level”, which means whether or not I think you should spend your time downloading these songs.   It’s on a scale from 1 to 5, 5 meaning that you should stop reading my review and download these songs immediately and 1 meaning that if you even think about downloading these songs your computer will be infected with a horrific bad music virus.   Enjoy.

<1> “Parallels” [2:49] – Immediately I am reminded of the Flaming Lips.

<2> “Rivers” [4:21] – We’re starting with a lot of quiet on this song.  Now we’re getting into some Nine Inch Nails sounding industrial synth.    But now the vocals are getting really high and this sounds like anything but Trent Reznor singing.   It’s got a very new wave feeling to it though.

<3> “Get Away” [5:38] – Some more dead air starts off this song.   Have I lost the transmission?   Oh, here come some organs or something.   Correction: I believe they are some sort of strings, like a cello perhaps.   And here comes that beat again.   This is going to be sort of new wave synth like the song before it, isn’t it?   Yup, here comes the dance beat.   Get on the floor because after these guys finish playing we’ve got Oingo Boingo!

<4> “Collapsing Horizon” [5:15] –More dead air turns into another new wave synth song.

<5> “Same” [3:53] - This has a different kind of synth, but the same general idea.  It should be noted, however, that this song did not start with dead air.

<6> “Colour” [3:49]- No dead air here either as we go into some trippy psychedelic type rock. This music provides the acid trips you loved in the 1970’s with the musical styles you loved from the 1980’s.  Far out.  Forget the cocaine; LSD is still the best trip.

                If you’d like to be taken back to a time when I was just being born and developing my skills (i.e. the first ten years of my life) then check this out.  If you are not a fan of the 1980’s style of music then you probably want to pass on this as well.

Recommended Downloading Level:  2/5