Lumerians - Call Of The Void

Call Of The Void is Lumerians’ third album and is out on Fuzz Club. Hailing from San Francisco and forming in 2006, this is their first album in four years.

The excellently-titled Fuck All Y’all starts with the sounds of the Berlin School – arpeggiated synths and sustained chords but pretty quickly a busy beat and some nasty guitars come in. It’s a pretty dynamic combination, it has space, drive, and texture. The synths are a bit more warped on Silver Trash, lurching in and out of tune before a guitar riff stabilises things. There is also something about the whole feel of the track that reminds me of 80s goth, particularly The Sisters Of Mercy.

Space Curse has another synthy start, a bit more Krautrock this time but also quite pop with the double snare beat, it’s quite similar to Moon Duo. The vocals are distorted and buried in the mix. There’s more driving, Psychedelic, Synth-Pop on Signal, more pitch-shifting, like My Bloody Valentine but on keyboards. Another brilliant pop drum pattern starts Fictional, the combination of sounds here doesn’t work as well – simple bass, pop drums, Goth vocal, pitch-shifting keyboards, meandering lead lines. Ironically, as the track gets more chaotic, it makes more sense. The introduction of the guitars binds the disparate elements together.

This chaotic sound continues on Masters but there is still a strange 80s German/Goth feel to it. It’s in no way a bad thing, it’s quite intriguing. Ghost is quite like 80s film music, there’s a great bassline and also a kind of Nick Rhodes synth section. Call Of The Void ends with the warm distortion of Clock Spell, probably their most successful combination of sounds, almost like Broadcast, although the vocal is possibly buried in effects too much.

Call Of The Void is good without being amazing. The sounds and arrangements are sometimes excellent, sometimes a bit odd in that I’m not always sure what they’re driving for. There is also something lacking melodically, it’s just not catchy or inventive enough. There are promising signs – I particularly like Silver Trash and Clock Spell – but not quite enough to make it a great album.