Lightning Bolt, the Spartanic Rhode Island duo of Brian Chippendale and Brian Gibson, continues its nearly 20-year squall with Oblivion Hunter, the band’s sixth LP. Culled from bits and pieces of recording sessions post-2009’s Earthly Delights, the sounds here satisfy any hunger for hypnotic, repetitive noise jams without really pushing the envelope.
Armed with drums, a bass guitar, unintelligible vocals and a slew of pedals, Chippendale and Gibson let loose a bit and seem to move away from the furiously tight compositions of Ride the Skies and Wonderful Rainbow. Without skimping on volume and veracity, “Salamander†and “Fly Fucker Fly†channel the demented, infectious tunefulness of songs like “13 Monsters†while coloring outside of the lines, blurring the line between organic improvisation and honed arrangement.
The band goes panoramic on the 13-minute final track, “World Wobbly Wide.†Having not gone anywhere near this long-form since the epic, 30-minute “Zone†from 1999, Lightning Bolt here lets loose with Sun Ra-informed cosmic permutations. In the end, the duo won’t be turning many heads with Oblivion Hunter, but the sonic assault is as alluring as ever.
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