CD Review: Sodium Lights - Post Signal

Published February 13, 2009
By Adam Wujtewicz

Post Signal has a familiar indie sound of 90's bands like Polvo with electronic influences like Massive Attack.  There are also occasional poppy, almost Paul Simon-esque, tunes on the record: "Thimble" and "His Father’s Father". The change from indie song to pop song is pretty hard to swallow within one album.  The production of this record is completely radio ready -  it's slick as black ice but the genre of music calls for it so I can't hold it against them.  

The musicianship matches up perfectly with the production, it's very tight and calculated without sounding forced or like it was cut and pasted in the studio.  I never thought I would hear a record like this come from South Eastern CT.  Not that it’s completely outside the realm of what's going on in the area, but the electronic elements along with atmospheric, almost spacey, texture of the songs certainly puts them in a class of their own.   

Post Signal can get a little sleepy at times for the average listener but if you put a little more effort into your listening there are tons of new layers to discover within the tracks.  This is a very dense record disguised as an airy ambient piece.  The good thing about studio bands is that they are completely committed and focused to making sure that the songs that they write sound as good as they can sound when they go on record.  This is where a lot of live bands go wrong.  They forget to add little bits of keyboard or maybe some extra guitar tracks to add thickness and atmosphere because they don't want to be untrue to what they sound like when they play out.  

Sodium Lights have taken all of these "frills" and made them sound absolutely vital.  The art of creating a record is not even on the same plane of existence.  While a live show runs on adrenaline your record must run on maintaining interest through artistry... and Post Signal most certainly does that.

Post Signal by Sodium Lights is available for purchase at The Mystic Disc in downtown Mystic, CT.


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