Lathe of Heaven is back with their new single ‘Oblivion’, and it is a hypnotic and terrifying dive into a dystopian soundscape.
This Brooklyn-based band creates a song that is both nostalgic and pleasantly original by skilfully fusing traditional post-punk sensibilities with contemporary flair. A relentlessly mechanical drum pattern and icy synths form the basis of the song’s soundscape, which resembles Joy Division going out to clubs in a nuclear bunker. The sonic texture is cold yet oddly danceable, with a brooding, powerful low-end serving as an anchor.
The song has a steady, repetitive beat, but the instruments are what provide a dynamic change. A constant drum shuffle and a gritty bassline give the track its hypnotic pulse. Over this, tense, silvery guitar riffs appear and disappear, while flickering, “icy” synths add to the disorienting feel. Instead of a big, dramatic climax, the music slowly intensifies, creating a claustrophobic atmosphere that makes it feel like the sound is closing in.
Frontman Gauge Allison‘s detached, echoing vocals cut through the haze, delivering lyrics that are both unnerving and cerebral. A science fiction thought experiment about “semantic satiation”—the idea that a word loses meaning when it is used repeatedly—serves as the basis for Allison’s work. He envisions a drug that, when taken in front of a mirror, sets off a feedback loop that multiplies the user’s sense of self to the point of oblivion, resulting in a paradoxical “oneness with the universe” that ultimately has disastrous outcomes. This sense of disorienting self-reflection is captured in the chorus with lines like, “Cascade – Familiar and strange – Stirring behind your eyes.” Allison explains these lyrics as a prequel to a short story about the dire consequences of this drug. The song is elevated above a mere genre exercise by this captivating story.
This sense of confusion and detachment from reality is aptly captured in the accompanying music video, which features fractured, blue-hued visuals and surreal imagery of spectral silhouettes. Their upcoming album, Aurora, promises to explore complex, literary themes through a lens of wounded, prismatic beauty, and ‘Oblivion’ is a potent and intellectually ambitious preview for that album. Lathe of Heaven’s position in the contemporary underground scene is solidified by this statement piece.
Words by C. Sharmishtha
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