Highpoint Lowlife
N.Ln : Astronomy for children (US,2003)***°
Badman Rec. N.Lannon : Chemical friends (US,2004)***°
Nyles Lannon released previously, under the name of N.Ln, a completely instrumental album of varied and intelligent instrumental laptop electronica pop (like track "4 little fires" ) and a few tracks of programmed electronic beats with ambient sounds (like "Spoke Words" ). A really fine album.
With his second album, “Chemical friends”, he is now recording under the name of N.Lannon.Here electronica is just one of the elements, which is a good idea. “The Catch” is such as a perfect folktronica combination of acoustic guitars, with an introverted energy and laidback singer-songwriter abilities, with additional fresh electronic modern sounds. "Turn Time Around" has nice and sweet dreamy pop vocals harmonies and filters. A song like "Hollow Heart" (but perhaps also “Spy” later on, and a bit less on "The Nature of Things") has something of whispery voice and guitar influence of Nick Drake, but then without the same inner need and poetry from internal expression, but much like taken or driven on a more normal life level, which might make it more personally recognisable to the ordinary listener of todays' world : it drives the listener into a safe dreamy mood in our daily life visions this time. Also "Fortune Cookie" is guitar and voice driven in a similar way, but gets some electronica in the mix too. On “My last breath” he mixes 80’s electronica on the background, in a more modern, catchy mix.
Most tracks still have something of a post-indie pop feeling, very dreamy, perhaps "sweetly" stoned, but always with catchy elements in the modern production (like"Demons"). Therefore none of the songs really comes out much to the fore, but that doesn't matter, for it is the sounds that speak. On
"Cruel" we can hear the approach of N.Ln again, with ambient-creativity waving around the song.
A really nice and well produced, technically perfect album.
PS. Nyles Lannon mostly was known before as guitarist/vocalist in the San Francisco band Film School.
