ALBUM REVIEW: Lilac – Town Of Lake
Sometimes the most fascinating art comes from unexpected places. Although Mike Hranica’s day job as frontman of metalcore heavyweights THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA has earned him plenty of accolades and countless fans around the world the band’s output could hardly be called challenging. Enter TOWN OF LAKE, Hranica’s droning noise solo project which flips everything you know about the singer on its head with far more in common with oddballs like SWANS or CHAT PILE, with spoken-word vocals and uncompromising, borderless soundscapes replacing his main project’s sing-along angst.
If you’ve come to TOWN OF LAKE with Hranica’s more popular work in mind then opening track Shall I Let You Leave Me + Sin Titulo is sure to leave you frustrated and confused, for dedicated noise fans however, this piece acts as a perfect introduction to the project’s sound and ethos. Coming across more like sound art than traditional song structures Lilac’s pieces often blur the boundaries between one another, this introductory track snaps itself in two. Acting like an auditory diptych with the first half featuring melancholy, Nick Cave style spoken word vocals over a lone twangy guitar line and the second taking on more of a noisy, confident, fuzzed-out, Iggy Pop inspired sound. This two-part opener is an ingenious way to introduce the project, featuring some of the album’s most stripped down and maximalist sounds in direct contrast to each other, showing off TOWN OF LAKE’s full range straight out of the gate.
Although TOWN OF LAKE is drastically higher minded than Hranica’s more accessible work, the project finds time between the artsy synth drones to bring in elements of 80s goth, punk, post-rock and even jazz. Lilac revels in blurring the lines between genres, throwing left-field sonic elements at the listener such as the sliding bass line from THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA bassist Mason Nagy, with Cuban jazz inspired congas and cowbells in the final third of No Gloss. Alongside the cinematic, Hans Zimmer style synth crescendo that dominates Death Of A Neighbourhood to the chunky post-punk style guitar riffing on How I Feel. While TOWN OF LAKE makes Hranica’s dry, baritone delivery a focus, the sonic backdrop has plenty of whirling, intricate parts to steal the spotlight and perk up the ears of even the most discerning experimental music fan.
Single The Valley makes for a fascinating case study on what makes TOWN OF LAKE so immediately impactful while also delivering one of Lilac’s most memorable experiences. Possibly the album’s most traditionally structured song, The Valley allows Hranica to loosen up from his straightjacketed spoken word delivery. Bringing some percussive melody to his voice while punchy drums and screeching dissonant guitars do their best to drown him in noise. While taking on a form closer to that of a traditional song than some of the more abstract pieces on the album with a motif roughly resembling a chorus being repeated throughout the song, The Valley continues the noisy, deliberately obtuse throughline that connects the disparate tracks on Lilac.
An album as off-the-wall as Lilac needs an appropriately obscure closer to leave the audience confused and yearning for more, luckily final track Drops Gather manages that and more. Mixing dissonant guitar led ambience and poetic, deliberate vocals on a bed of musique concrete style found sounds. Drops Gather sounds more like a deep cut from the soundtrack of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre than anything Hranica has released in the past. Building up in a steady crescendo to a saturated, noisy peak before dissipating like mist, Drops Gather acts as a fittingly dense cap to an album full of cathartically intense noise.
Lilac by TOWN OF LAKE may be one of the year’s most exciting noise releases with impenetrable yet deliberate and delicate walls of sound backing frontman Mike Hranica’s commanding baritone vocals. If you’re approaching TOWN OF LAKE as a fan of Hranica’s work in THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA then you may have trouble accepting that this project hasn’t been made with you in mind, however, if you let yourself become engulfed by Lilac then you’ll find a treasure trove of breathtaking sounds to drown in.
Rating: 9/10
Lilac is set for release on October 4th via Peach Bandana Records.