La Luz Floating Features
La Luz Floating Features released on Hardly Art is their 3rd full length album, it’s the best to date and marks a new moment in the garage rock / Surf music genre. Producer Dan Auerbach of Black Keys inspired La Luz to do a track by track studio recording zeroing in on the exact sounds they wanted for each arrangement. Life on the road, Las Angeles California, dreams, nightmares, and the high strangeness in our current world are the inspiration for this album.
La Luz writes and arranges as a band and everything comes together in uncanny perfection. The vocal arrangements and performance are some of the best out there. Every song has Shana Cleveland (Guitar), Marian Li-Pino (Drums), Lena Simon (Bass), and Alice Sandahl (Keys) harmonizing vocals and truly capturing that retro girl group vibe sounding like The Ronettes of 1960’s fame.
Photos by Eleonora C. Collini
La Luz originally hailing from Seattle has spent the last several years on world tours home basing and recording in Las Angeles, California. These talented women are rising to the top of the surf inspired California music scene with contemporaries The Growlers, Allah-las, L.A. Witch and many others.
Shana Cleveland fronts the band with jangley guitars laced with the perfect vintage inspired effects like reverb, fuzz, tremolo, rotary speakers, tape delay and more. The perfect blending of effects and tone on the guitars is wonderful to hear. The guitar parts themselves are complex interesting and perfectly played. The “surf rock” leads and runs are far from cliche and raise the bar for Neopsychedelic surf guitar.
Alice Sandahl drips into the most famous organ and keyboard sounds using Hammond B3 Organ, Vox Centennials, and other revered organ tones. Her arrangements are highly satisfying saturating the music with added depth and intrigue.
The rhythm section with Marian Li-Pinto and Lena Simon is tight and interesting never overstated or understated. The bass lines are infectious with catchy rhythms and melodies stabilizing the songs with a solid foundation. The drums are dynamic and thoughtful both rhythmically and tonally.
La Luz Floating Features is a masterpiece in this genre of music.
Dan Auerbach’s ability to inspire and fund great albums is well-known, however, La Luz creates something truly unique and inspired. The expanded freedom in access to instruments and studio time allowed this band to show what they are capable of. La Luz Floating Features is one of the best albums out this year and cannot be overlooked.
La Luz Floating Features
Floating Features
Cicada
Loose Teeth
Mean Dream
California Finally
The Creature
My Golden One
Lonely Dozer
Greed Machine
Walking Into The Sun
Written By: Temple Rose
Thank you so much and yes we do all need psychedelic rock acid folk music in 2021 we need more hippies in our world. Peace n love brother.
Very informative!!! Thanks my friend, can’t wait wait until the next one!!! Much love from dmtworld.net!!!