Light Asylum

Album review

There's something about the contrast between chilly electronics and a deep, all-too-human voice that has inspired generations of musicians, from Ian Curtis to Grace Jones to Alison Moyet to Q. Lazzarus to Cold Cave. On their self-titled debut album, Light Asylum are in this tradition but not beholden to it, sounding more comfortable, and more genuine, than many of their contemporaries as they blend coldwave, industrial, EBM, and even some pop influences into something uniquely formidable. First and foremost, Light Asylum gives Shannon Funchess' impossibly rich contralto, which has graced collaborations with TV on the Radio, !!!, and Teengirl Fantasy, the perfect platform. She unleashes like never before on these songs, with a righteous fury that borders on suffocating, particularly on the mighty "At Will" and "Pope Will Roll," where the soul and gospel foundations of her voice come to the fore against a brutal industrial backdrop. Admirably, Funchess and partner Bruno Coviello only repeated one song from their self-released In Tension EP, the gorgeously elegiac "A Certain Person," which, along with "Shallow Tears," shows that Funchess' voice is just as strong when it's gentle. Throughout Light Asylum, Coviello provides the perfect foil to Funchess' recriminations and outbursts, whether it's the ethereal tones of opener "Hour Fortress," the hard-edged laser show of "Heart of Dust," or the sleek confines of "Sins of the Flesh." Unrepentant and unrelenting, Light Asylum is an indelible debut. It's not for the faint of heart, but anyone partial to heavy, brooding, uncompromising music will likely be gladly carried away by it.

© Heather Phares /TiVo