(2021) Lanterna - Hidden Drives



Review:
Henry Frayne has been recording as Lanterna since the early 1990s, first as a solo outlet from bands like The Syndicate, ¡Ack-Ack!, Area, and The Moon Seven Times, and later as his main musical endeavor. Hidden Drives is the seventh album in this wholly instrumental project’s catalogue, and it hits a sweet spot in the overlap between ambient meditation and propulsive groove. Start, for instance, with the title track, which arises in great clarity from a string of splayed chords, then kicks into motion with a chug of bass, a clatter of drums and some organ-like surges on synthesizer. The cut has a relentless, bubbling optimism, a sense of purpose and forward motion. Though made with organic instruments, it shares with Neu! a radiant kind of onwardness. Frayne gets a variety of different tones from his electric guitar set up and none more beautiful than the cascades of glittering harmonics on display in “Cupola.” This one may remind you, a bit, of The Edge circa The Joshua Tree. The notes are allowed to float in ghostly formations, rather like those flocks of birds that careen in massed vees and clouds over the evening sky, and then, this cut, too, picks up hard pulsing beat. “Chagrin Boulevard,” the one in the video above, is scratchier and full of jangle, like an American Primitive meditation in a new age daydream. “Muscle Ridge” dips into blues forms, dropping smoke-fused bent notes into luminous, hyper-clear atmospheres. Frayne worked mostly by himself on Hidden Drives, but long-time collaborator Eric Gebow turned up near the end to add drums. The songs, though, sound surprisingly band-like, their airy contemplations punched up by driving bass and the rush of drums. Mike Brosco from the Signalmen remixed four of the tracks, and his work is fine, but it does make the disc a bit long for straight-through listening.



Track Listing:
01 – Aix
02 – Hidden Drives
03 – Cupola
04 – Chagrin Boulevard
05 – Redwoods
06 – Aqueduct
07 – Maine 262
08 – Nice
09 – Muscle Ridge
10 – Flag
11 – Hidden Drives (South Thomaston)
12 – Cupola (University Avenue)
13 – Redwoods (Sans)
14 – Maine 262 (Appleton Ridge)
15 – Muscle Ridge (Channel)


Media Report:
Genre: ambient, post-rock
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits