ALBUM REVIEW: Dark Light – EYE

While second and third albums are eagerly awaited and come loaded with expectation, artists have their entire lives to introduce themselves with their debut. Jessica Ball has a whole other body of work as part of MAMMOTH WEED WIZARD BASTARD, but not all of her ideas fit into the band’s sludgescapes. For EYE, her ethereal solo project, she has dusted off material that predates MWWB, revisiting lyrics from her early twenties. The result is a distant relative of Ball’s main gig, still mind-altering, still hypnotic, but in a quieter and more dreamy way. It’s time for her second debut, a reintroduction of sorts, that stands in stark contrast to her other band’s aggression.

In the absence of pummelling downtuned riffage, what is immediately apparent is just how sparse Dark Light is. Chris Fielding’s production is crisp and clear, notes ring out like icicles on a winter’s night. But there’s warmth too, especially on opener Window where thick synthesisers rumble below R’n’B rhythms. If MWWB are all about constant crunch, EYE exists in the space between sounds; there is enough breathing room on most tracks to slow a pulse.

Now that everything is quieter, Ball’s voice never has to fight for centre stage. On The Other Sees, a latter day NINE INCH NAILS-like number, she leans soulful and gets stuck in among the electronic fuzz. Later, on Respair, she brings to mind Lauren Mayberry of CHVRCHES, tunefully soaring above the melancholic accompaniment. There’s a consistent mood across Dark Light, but an impressively diverse approach to its introspective ideas too, and it’s especially apparent in the way Ball adapts her delivery.

Although its formative ideas stretch back years, the record was created in the shadow of COVID-19 and the ill-health of MWWB guitar Paul Davies following a stroke. Speaking about The Other Sees on her Facebook page, Ball describes it as a song about the “feeling of fear that comes with great love“, and the way we can’t help but think of how things we have dreamed of our whole lives will one day end. The music is appropriately downbeat and introverted, often sounding like the kind of thoughts that keep people company at 2am. In The Sun Eternally, a sort of interlude, is built around an otherworldly synthwave, evocative of uncanny liminal spaces where imaginations take on a life of their own. Keeping with that aesthetic, the back half of the title track features a slight distortion like an old VHS tape, an oddly comforting kind of static. Similarly, finger-plucked closer Rescue You contains subtle digital hums like an old TV in the next room.

Given her work in MWWB, it is no surprise Ball knows how to imbue her songwriting with a vibe or two, yet what is most striking about Dark Light is the variety of ways in which she does so. It is as much shoegaze as it is PORTISHEAD, and draws from the minor keys of ANATHEMA and the seductive sounds of R’n’B. It makes for a nocturnal record that holds a mirror up to the listener; for some it will sound intimate, while others will find loneliness. Everyone will find greatness. If you didn’t already know Ball, don’t miss out on her essential second introduction.

Rating: 8/10

Dark Light is set for release on April 26th via New Heavy Sounds.

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