LIGHTNING DUST Issue #32

Lightning Dust

By Joel Cusumano
Published: June 1st, 2007 | 12:00am

Lightning Dust is the elemental inverse of Black Mountain, Amber Webber and Joshua Wells’ other, louder band; rather than flaring like a thunderstruck pine, Lightning Dust burns like whale oil. Cool electric pianos, sparse drums, and Webber’s frigid, haunting vocals make for something likely to be found late-night in a coffeehouse, except for the oppressive sense of doom (“I ordered espresso, not ennui!”)

“Castles and caves, the only difference is the shape,” croons Webber on the album’s centerpiece, “Castles and Caves” — it wouldn’t really matter if she’s singing from a circus tent for the feeling of the intense emptiness of surroundings that hallmarks the music. Opener “Listened On” documents a haunting walk home with the trickling footsteps of electric keys and organs, while “Heaven” drips with doom. In the latter, Webber and Wells sing the hope-smashing chorus: “We keep our smiling faces / When nothing else is in our favor.” There’s something great when you feel your heart sink with Webber on “When You Go” as she sings, “It’s not when you go that worries me / It’s when you leave.”

For sure, too often these songs feel like sketches, not fully realized material, and the album is slighter as a result. But Webber’s voice is surprisingly understated, where many of her dirge-rock contemporaries strive vaingloriously to sing like they’re choking a parrot. In Lightning Dust’s most intense moments, the duo has the aura of a young Richard and Linda Thompson (minus any technical virtuosity), which, by any measure, is a great start.