Fourth album from garage/math rock trio Guiding Lights. “The Document” contains 9 instrumental tracks reminiscent of Don Caballero, Slint and June of 44. It’s at the same time minimal, direct and tense.
This Warsaw-based trio started as a vehicle for fast-paced melodic indie songs but with time adopted a more complex approach to songwriting including complicated rhythmic patterns and getting rid of vocal parts.
“It’s no secret that our debut album consists of songs written way before we formed this band,” Łukasz (guitar) explains. „Second one also came out thanks to adopting a songwriting mode. Then we were forced to change our approach due to our drummer’s move to Germany. What served as the basis then was a drum machine beat with bass and guitar jamming around it. And that’s what I think contributed to a somehow neurotic vibe of ‘Cold Reading’. We couldn’t follow this path any longer since it would lead to musical variations on Naked City’s ‘Speed Freaks’,” he adds.
“At the time I was leaving Warsaw all of us felt that our idea for this band was running out. We thought about reseting everything along with changing the name of our band but I’m glad we’ve not taken things that far,” says Piotrek (drums). „I find it exciting to do whatever you feel like doing without looking at what other people think about it. Especially now that most musicians focus too much on shaping their online image. Guiding Lights are happy to stay away from such actions and this is how I define artistic independence,” he adds.
“The Document” is an instrumental album but the number of musical tropes audible in each track is simply astonishing. And it goes along a really direct and dry production. “I guess singing doesn’t usually fall in place with such sounds. From the listener perspective lack of vocals allows for more focus on details of band’s performance. The less, the better,” Piotrek explains.
