It’s safe to say that mere seconds into Infinite Light, the second album from Lightning Dust, you can pretty much decide what side of the fence you sit on with the Vancouver duo. Amber Webber’s warbling yet affecting vocals make their appearance shortly after a few soft strums of an acoustic guitar on opening track “Antonia Jane” and the stage is set for the rest of the folky, yet synth laden tracks that follow. Lightning Dust is the side project of Black Mountain’s Amber Webber and Joshua Wells, but whereas Black Mountain is often described as having a harder more psych-rock sound, Lightning Dust is the avenue by which Webber and Wells can create more stripped down, melodic and softer tunes.
After “Antonia Jane” fades out, a machine driven drum beat leads into first single “I Knew”, a two-and-a-half minute jaunt which takes the album from the straight-forward approach of “Antonia Jane” to the eeriness of Webber’s vocals complimented by the synth based instrumentation that characterizes most of the album. Webber’s vocals are still the distinguishing feature throughout, but the music steps it up a notch from their self-titled debut album back in 2007 to create melodies that can better serve Webber’s unique style. Maybe this is best seen on album centerpiece “Never Seen” which features a glorious breakdown in the latter half of the track which for me is easily the highlight of the entire disc. At 10 songs and just shy of 35 minutes, Infinite Light flies by. But, with so much substance in the tracks included, it doesn’t feel like you’ve been cheated at all, unless you’re one of the few who decide against Lightning Dust after those first few seconds, in which case, maybe you should give it another try.
[“I Knew” – Infinite Light]
[“Never Seen” – Infinite Light]
Posted by Hawkins 
A Round of Sound 