Umair Chaudhry, formerly of Xmas Lights, has been very busy of late;
this marks his third release in as many months and while his music
continues to draw from the same morose well that inspires his other
bands, Abandon and Monday Morning Sun, Bicycles With No Riders
represents a marked shift away from his usual multi-layered approach in
favour of a largely acoustic set of songs. In this more intimate
context, Umair’s cyclical guitar patterns feel open and expansive where
they can occasionally sound weighty and claustrophobic in his
densely-layered Abandon guise. There is still a grey cloud hanging over
these songs, but Hold You Up To the Light is a much more accessible
listen that allows Umair’s simple arrangements to ring out in all their
downtrodden majesty, airy synths and piano occasionally lending
proceedings a cinematic splendour. Lyrically, Umair is still struggling
with inner demons and themes of regret, but stripped down to just voice
and guitar, he is able to balance the moments of dark and light with a
deft touch, his guitar playing alternately sparse (“Good and Evil”) and
dense (“Shatter”) as he finds some common ground between Red House
Painters and Jesu. This is still music to soundtrack the cold months,
but Hold You Up To the Light is more crisp December morning than bleak
midwinter.
[Originally published in Nightshift magazine, Issue 222, Jan 2014]
http://nightshift.oxfordmusic.net/2014/jan.pdf
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