The Lava Children

The Lava Children (Graveface)

By Erin Wolf
Published: June 11th, 2009 | 7:00am

The soundtrack to summer is about to get a whole lot creepier. The Lava Children have created a compact work of eerie pop, dense with echoing cymbals, fluttering and crashing instrumentation, and childlike, atonal vocals that would be at home played in the clearing of a forest or a damp basement. Sherri West and Taylor Clark are from Oklahoma, but sound as though they rolled out from under the mossy rocks of a wilder clime, their instruments full of the same damp decay: languid, flat, and dripping with chilling undertones.

Elements of Deerhoof, Sonic Youth, Joanna Newsom, the Vaselines, Nick Cave, and Stereolab are all present in the Lava Children’s sound, but none entirely claim it. The Lava Children are caterwauling and ethereally original, truly creating what can still be claimed as "pop" in their self-titled debut, the most obvious being the album opener, “I Am a Pony.” The standout track echoes with trip-hop instrumentation and rhythmic stability through the use of drum machines and acoustic guitars, while West plaintively plants her unique voice into the listener’s brain in the way a stark dream might.

“Particles,” “Firefly,” and “The Green Word” are slightly tribal, throwing smoke signals to things that go bump in the night to create a sound that is sweetly warped. “Troll” carries the same qualities, but manages to transform the intro reverberating guitar line into a bastardized form of dark, underwater surf rock. The song picks up halfway through with West’s sweet vocals, catching glints of light.

The Lava Children’s debut mini-LP is definitely an odd affair, but for those so saturated with the density of typical pop, this type of chewed-up-and-spit-out instrumentation packed with originality should be a good substitute. The melody lines and arrangements may be stuffed to the gills, but they still allow the listener to come up for air with bewitching and wispy qualities

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