Lightspeed Champion
Falling Off the Lavender Bridge
(Domino)
Talk about a drastic change of direction. The last time Devonte Hynes hit the road, he was raising art-punk rackets on stages across the world with the band Test Icicles. As they began their premature demise in 2005, Hynes put together NLS Crew - a group that combines hip hop, metal and electro - and then worked in a similarly eclectic group with Tom Vek.
But none of that is evident here. Lightspeed Champion is so much back to melody-driven basics that Hynes' past of angular riffs, cross-genre thrashing and provocative gestures seems aeons away.
Galaxy of the Lost, the first single off the record and the album's opener (bar the half-minute musical prologue Number One), is a statement of intent. Strings accompany Hynes' voice - with Emmy the Great on backing vocals - as the track begins, before an acoustic guitar, pedal steel and the drum-bass combo kick in.