Recommended If You Like: Glass Animals, Jungle, alt-J
If debuts are meant to make first impressions, then consider Light Entertainment a new favorite: The Australian indie’s introductory single “Tableaux” is a mesmerizing musical journey that promises to sweep you off your feet and into the band’s magical world.
Hello stranger, hello friend
Would you care to shut the lights out
Have you ever felt the need?
Need to go and gouge your eyes out.
Listen: “Tableaux” – Light Entertainment
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/310600458?secret_token=s-TfZb7″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=true&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”150″ iframe=”true” /]Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “Tableaux,” the debut single from Sydney, Australia’s Light Entertainment. Consisting of James Dunlop, Henry Mewing, Dan Kuzmiuk, and Jack Cordukes, Light Entertainment formed in 2016 over a mutual appreciation for diving deeper into music’s utter depths. Though this marks its official release, “Tableaux” has already received significant support and regular airplay from independent radio stations throughout Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. The word ‘tableau’ itself can refer to a picture or painting, like that depicting a certain scene or vignette; it is a fitting title, considering the montage of sonic imagery the band soon offers.
Jazz, rock, blues, psychedelic, industrial, hip-hop, you name it – influences from all corners of the music world went into Light Entertainment’s seven minute debut. “Tableaux” opens to find the bass and drums sharing a punchy beat; the are soon joined by the guitar’s harmonic riff, and Cordukes’ intimately smooth saxophone. “Hello stranger, hello friend,” sings James Dunlop. What a perfect way to introduce your first song: It feels like he’s addressing the audience as a whole, and certainly catches our attention.
Though we soon discover Dunlop may have others in mind for his address, “Tableaux” is nonetheless gripping. The band capture the intoxicating power and haze that fueled the likes of Glass Animals‘ and Jungle’s debut albums, but there is something different about Light Entertainment: Their music is utterly raw – brazen and lush, but not cocky. They play a fine line, and they play it well.
I’m a faker, I’m a fiend
Souls to mine and skin to borrow
I’m a tailor for your dreams
Needles stitch the the seams of sorrow
You look just like me
Bastard queen of all envy
I’m a hooker for your face
On the mantle, full display
Energy slowly builds through riffs and drones until the band lets it all out in the chorus: “You look just like me,” sings Dunlop in an evocative falsetto. We feel the force of that release; tension subsides, only to build again to another eclipse of emotion.
Light Entertainment describe “Tableaux” as “a song depicting the requirement of something, or someone, so completely and utterly it consumes one’s life.” Sort of like an addition. We feel that magnetism – the pull of forces dragging us toward our desires – dripping from every crevice of “Tableaux.”
And then, something miraculous happens. As the second chorus nears its finale, the band breaks into a three-minute jam. The drums offer a light dance beat, over which piano, saxophone, and guitar all get their time to solo and dribble through hypnotic melodies. The instruments, playing over one another, make it easy for listeners to get lost in the funk of Light Entertainment’s dreamy vibes.
Perfect colour, perfect hue
Cold complexion, made from rubber
Tainted history
So serene and full of colour
Such chaos is wonderfully deceptive: Not a second goes by without the band knowing exactly where they are, as we eventually learn when the instruments jump out of that funk and into a driving rock rhythm that sends the song home.
“Tableaux” is epic. Few bands would dare introduce themselves with an epic: It’s a bold move, and it immediately sets Light Entertainment apart from their peers. The Sydney foursome offer an enormous range of colors and styles on the explorative “Tableaux,” keeping us hooked from beginning to end. If this is just the starting point for Light Entertainment, then we cannot wait to dive deeper into their music.
“Tableaux” is the lead single off Light Entertainment’s forthcoming debut album Strangle Risky // Fall Good, anticipated in late 2017.
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