Lotus Plaza “The Floodlight Collective”

3.5/5

Lotus Plaza, the solo project from Deerhunter guitarist Lockett Pundt, cannot help but be compared to Atlas Sound, another recent solo project coming from the Deerhunter camp, this time from frontman Bradford Cox. Both Pundt’s and Cox’s debut LPs trade in bedroom-pop, reminiscent of vintage 4AD but updated via laptop studios; reverb is applied liberally, feedback and distortion breaks and falls in slow motion and all manner of chimes, shakers and cymbals are fed through washes of delay. But while Atlas Sound’s Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel either soared or faltered by getting lost in its own dizzy textures and loops, The Floodlight Collective plays it a bit more restrained. The layers are not as thick with gauze,the sequencing is a little easier to get around and the songwriting underneath is more reserved.  

When he comes up with variants to the sound or the grooves get a bit propulsive (the clicking slivers of distort ion on “Sunday Night” and the spindly riffs and drum beats on “A Threaded Needle” for example) the album feels immediate, warm and confident. When he focuses on humbler ideas however it comes off as slight; Pundt’s voice mostly blurs into everything else and the guitars tastefully shimmer on and on. Still, fans of either Deerhunter or Atlas Sound will find much to fall into with this subdued version of their distinctive, drenched ambience.

-Jarrad Cogle