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"BLACK ACTS" CD/LP OUT NOW ON SMELLS LIKE RECORDS and
Second instrumental long-player from the princes of the Chicago drone herd, Jeremy Lemos and Matt Clark. Brainwave-flattering guitar & analog gadget noise jams, warm on the tails of their highly-praised 2007 collaboration with one-man psych-weirdo Lichens. Said Matt, to his momma: "You know, like Folke Rabe and his kid brother, with Ray-Bans and a Jazzmaster, man. Doesn't that make sense? Isn't that what we need right now?" Yeah, a United State of White/Light sounds alllll right. Released October 28, 2008.
Smells Like Records Website Preview
Now that guitarist Matt Clark is studying law at Washington University in Saint Louis, his duo with Jeremy Lemos doesn't play around town as often as it once did. But I don't think the (relative) absence of White/Light has necessarily made my heart grow fonder--that is, I don't think it's the reason I find their recent album, Black Acts (released by Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley on his Smells Like label), to be a big leap forward. Drone is still the main course, but this time out the duo pay much greater attention to dynamics; their pulsating onslaughts don't feel so airless, and the difference between Clark's guitar and Lemos's electronics is more clearly demarcated.
There are still some face melters, so crushingly loud that the sound feels like the walls closing in on you, but tracks like "Bree Daniels" are ambient and almost spooky--not so much isolation-tank calm as 2001: A Space Odyssey creepy. Elsewhere White/Light sound like backward black metal, loops of revving motorcycles and squealing car tires, echoing elephant cries, the muffled hum of jets flying high overhead, or the waking yawns of a dyspeptic ogre--the music is like a sonic Rorschach test.
Peter Margasak, Post No Bills, January 2009
Last year these guys teamed up with Robert Lowe, aka Lichens, for a killer collab on Holy Mountain that left us floored. Black Acts harbors the same type of synthy, visual drones that come reeling out of White/Lichens, only this time around the White/Light boys weave their brand of bliss into more desolate territory. The Chicago duo manage to conjure an impressive brand of dark analog hypnosis, like waking up in the middle of the desert to a shimmering pyramid mirage made of sound and light. Even while parts of the record hint at the early minimalist legacies of dudes like La Monte Young and Henry Flint, there is a subtle buzzy edge to these songs that set them apart from the work of their predecessors. The record opens with creeping high end crunch that builds into a pulsing haze of all-encompassing droooone. More low-end, distorted swells of heavy bass kick in and, man, talk about headphone dreamland. These dudes really know how to rocket a listener into another dimension. As the record spins the duo cover all kinds of territory, cosmic feedback bleeps from the cockpit of a spaceship, orchestral beams of long-winded swells, single note droners that leave you dazed and entranced. A heap of bodies on the cover and a heap of guitars, pedals and amps on the back, the artwork is cryptic and elusive, perfect for a beautifully arranged record of analog dreamscapes for the mellow minded.
Aquarius Records, Fall 2008
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ON THE WHITE/LICHENS SELF-TITLED CD OUT 2007 ON HOLY MOUNTAIN:
True to the Velvets reference of their name, local duo WHITE/LIGHT use drones, feedback, and fuguelike repetition to create haunting, ominous long-form structures. Keyboardist-engineer Jeremy Lemos and guitarist Matthew Clark released their self-titled debut on local label Rebis Records in 2005: it’s 50 minutes of disembodied reverberations and deep tectonic shivers that you experience as much with the follicles and gut as with the ears. (Each track is named for its running time, the majestic centerpiece being “28:43.”) This past spring they teamed up with Robert Lowe (of 90 Day Men and solo group Lichens) for White/Lichens, released by the prominent doom/drone/psych label Holy Mountain. The wide-ranging results encompass ethno-ambient trance (“Stolas, or Stolos”), mountain-of-amps guitar scree (“Belial”), and howling, silvery soundscapes reminiscent of Xenakis’s electronic work (“Amdusia, or Amdukias”) before coming to a cathartic close with “Bael”—a brutal 16-minute electric maelstrom that pays simultaneous tribute to British noise freaks Skullflower and to everybody’s favorite three-headed Goetian archdemon.
J. Niimi, Chicago Reader
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ON THE WHITE/LIGHT SELF-TITLED CD ON REBIS 2005:
WHITE/LIGHT Matt Clark and Jeremy Lemos come up with seemingly endless variations on guitar drone as White/Light--and though the band's name was inspired by the Velvets' feedback-drenched White Light/White Heat, they also claim as influences Earth 2, Fripp and Eno, and the guitar solo on the title track from Maggot Brain. The drifting, ambient pieces on the duo's self-titled debut on Rebis Records are at once graceful and harrowing, and while they don't adhere to conventional song forms they do develop according to a certain logic. Clark and Lemos layer low-end rumbles, high-frequency sine waves, and lacerating bursts into constellations of sound that reward close listening, and even though the tone of each piece is essentially fixed, the two constantly rejigger details to keep the record full of surprises. On the brief "01:43" an organlike tone oscillates in and out, sounding like a spinning coin coming to rest, while the epic "28:43" is filled with ominous, billowy hums and sharp slashing gestures that slowly grow denser and more claustrophobic. The music has an almost orchestral depth, awash in the sort of resonant glow that comes from a love of sound for its own sake.
Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader, November 2005
From time to time a friend of mine confronts me with what he calls the limitations of the drone scene and the fact that everything sounds the same. It goes without saying that he’s way off base on this one but as to illustrate this I think I’ll play him White/Light the next time he’s around, because I don’t think I’ve heard as many drone styles present on a single recording in quite some time. The opening '05:57' displays darkly contemplative drone webs while '01:43' is almost inaudible if you don’t turn it up loud. '28:43' is a minimal tone excursion that kicks off with high-end frequencies and sustained drones that slowly shift and eventually build into a storm of sound whistling through a narrow tunnel of claustrophobic beauty. Other tracks maintain the magically resonating damaged soundscapery but at the same time pirouettes into something a whole lot more minimal and surprisingly organic. The last track even has a distant folk feel to it, which comes as a big surprise given the rest of the album. Despite the fact that White/Light covers such a wide range of drone terrain the duo manages to nicely hold things together. It’s a challenging but also very rewarding listening excursion these Chicago residents invite us to attend.
Mats Gustafson, Broken Face, July 2005
