They say the city never sleeps at night and that may well be true even if strolling through concrete underpasses in the moonlight these days would make you wish you had more than a soundtrack for company. Talking of suitable soundtracks, how about Gates of Light “London Edition” EP as a contender?
It’s after dark so chances are you have just left a club so those memories of the dancefloor won’t be far from your thoughts and, indeed, the ghost of the dancefloor haunts all but one of the four songs on this EP. Melody is sacrificed to the god of rhythm and with the brooding analogue synth sounds looped and processed with robotic precision, all that is of the past soon echoes and reverberates around you. Some might even say it is like being trapped in a concrete underpass with an invisible DJ.
That said, it is perhaps all the more remarkable that you can’t ignore the voice of Louise Quinn. Blessed with the ability to escape even the gravitational pull of the reverb black hole, she outmanoeuvres the lyrical repetition to generate something akin to hypnotic hymns to the modern urban nightmare with “I Keep Reaching For The Sun”, in particular, likely to encourage even vampires to leave their crypts and worship her in the harsh light of day.
When all is said and done, this EP is an interesting artistic choice with the cold, almost harsh, revival of those rigidly sequenced analogue synth sounds being counterpointed by Louise Quinn’s near mystical elegance and the end result work better than some might expect. It’s a style thing and you will know it when you hear it.