Louderbach

Shine (Radio Edit) Louderbach

The most intriguing aspect of Troy Pierce’s and Gibby Miller’s Louderbach project is the way it effortlessly pulls in so many directions and as if to underline this fact, Shine - the first single to surface from the new Autumn LP also appears in classic 7” vinyl format alongside the 12” and digital remix collections. Drawing on shared influences such as Bauhaus, Coil and Joy Division, the duo have appropriated the best elements of these early-eighties pioneers, reinterpreting them through a contemporary lens to achieve a perfect balance of style and content. It’s the result of an unspoken understanding that spans thousands of miles from their bases in Berlin and L. A. and nowhere is this distant intimacy better exemplified than on Shine. Edited down into this compact radio friendly version, it’s the perfect soundtrack for a night drive with Miller’s vocal performance recalling the cathartic Joy Division/New Order crossover period in both texture and mood, exuding both vulnerability and danger. Playing out across a loose fitting arrangement full of dark, low-end melodies, slivers of glistening hihats and heavily modulated analogue layers, the vocals chart burning obsession and the slow, disintegration of desire through a series of rich metaphors that remain restless yet resilient to the end as the sustained minor chord of the lead-out gradually breaks up. The B-side features something of a departure with the beatless electronic soundscape of External Envelope - a study in intensely repetitive sounds that isn’t so much music as a mind-warping experience of its own. Consisting of analogue synthesizer drones, treated sitar and low, warbling vox-like chants, it pulses at various oscillating rates inviting a trip to the local sensory deprivation tank and adding a final piece to the Louderbach puzzle.