From the start, Son Lux has operated as something akin to a sonic test kitchen. The band strives to question deeply held assumptions about how music is made and reconstruct it from a molecular level. What began as a solo project for founder Ryan Lott expanded in 2014, thanks to kinship with Ian Chang and Rafiq Bhatia too strong to ignore. The trio strengthened their chemistry and honed their collective intuition while creating, releasing, and touring five recordings, including LPs Bones (2015) and Brighter Wounds (2018). A carefully cultivated musical language rooted in curiosity and balancing opposites largely eschews genre and structural conventions.
And yet, the band remains audibly indebted to iconoclastic artists in soul, hip-hop, and experimental improvisation who themselves carved new paths forward. Distilling these varied influences, Son Lux searches for equilibrium of raw emotional intimacy and meticulous electronic constructions.
Son Lux has gifted us with their fresh and soulful new single “Prophecy” (below) from Tomorrows II out December 4th via City Slang, the second album in a far-reaching three-volume body of work culminating in physical editions of all three volumes to be released together in 2021.
A restrained and groovy R&B instrumental swings as angelic harmonies via Nina Moffitt cling to the backdrop. Here Lott shines as he pitch-perfectly delivers soft and poetic lyrical wit. A chorus and mantra so simple and so good, “Don’t stand in your own way. Don’t stand in your own way. I won’t stand in your way.” Son Lux possesses electronic musical chops akin to Moses Sumney and Dirty Projectors with its own brand of creative Alternative R&B genius.
