News / / 11.06.14

Son Lux + Sun Glitters

The Exchange, Bristol | 5 May

From the visceral energy of clattering garage rock to the layered melancholy of chiming electronica: there are many types of live show that can force your jaw to drop open and your hands to be hoisted skywards in meek appreciation. 

Son Lux’s strategy is an astounding level of musicianship, arrangement and dexterity combined with a tighter-than-tight band, and it was a joy to behold (but more on that in a second). Support act Sun Glitters (aka the ‘Laptop from Luxemburg’, although he doesn’t know that yet) suffered through a frustrating start as his computer spluttered and died midway through his first song. 10 minutes later, he was up and running, segueing through ambient, looping electronic swirls, and stumbling, staccato beats. His bleary-eyed river of sound was mesmerising in places, but perhaps partly because of the false start it disappointingly didn’t quite hit the heights of his best recorded output.

Son Lux (Ryan Lott), on the other hand, took half a dozen songs from his last record Lanterns and knocked them into the rafters. Controlling a keyboard that appeared to be kitted out with sounds from the future (a future where everything sounds better), and pirouetting with a drummer and guitarist whose perfectly orchestrated backing suggested they were all joined by the umbilical cord, Son Lux spewed forth a hybrid sound somewhere between James Blake, Battles and Anticon’s Baths. Lott’s deft, impassioned vocal work walked the audience delicately to the edge of a precipice and then talked us back down again. Material like the majestic Lost It To Trying and the cyber funk of Easy leapt out of the band’s instruments and into the room like a musical sculpture. And there was also the small matter of one of the coolest guitar solos ever (yeah). The only downside? Listening to the records at home will now forever sound second best.

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Words: Adam Corner

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