Lotus Plaza, Spooky Action at a Distance
Featured Album
Soft-spoken daydreamers can pump their fists, too
That Lockett Pundt, he’ll sneak up on you. In Deerhunter, frontman Bradford Cox’s outsize personality makes him an easy lightning rod, but Pundt has played a hardly less electrifying role as the band’s guitarist. His first solo album as Lotus Plaza, 2009′s The Floodlight Collective, was woozy, winsome dream-pop that confirmed Pundt’s familiar gifts for ethereal sonic textures but only hinted at his growing strength as a songwriter. This follow-up is strikingly the work of the man who wrote “Desire Lines,” the rousing centerpiece of Deerhunter’s peak so far, 2010′s Halcyon Digest. Crystalline guitar arpeggios meet precise krautrock pulses, time-bending codas – and ear-catching ’60s pop melodies. Wistful stoners’ anthem “Monoliths” distills the album’s shoegaze-informed style most concisely, but equally essential non-album single “Come Back” best previews the mesmerizing yet propulsive live show. Proof soft-spoken daydreamers can pump their fists, too.
