Solus Locus @ Leeds Festival 2008
By Sam Saunders
A violin bow on a guitar is no longer an interesting sight. As an opening gambit by a new band it's even a bit ponderous. But no matter, Solus Locus are young and new and what they do is enthusiastic, fresh and full of invention. Clouds and even a little rain are in the air and their opening song has a parallel mood. The post-rock crescendo comes a little earlier than usual and there's an intense drone effect in the combined synth and guitar parts, like some early 20th century modernist orchestral piece. The sonic landscape is built in two bar slabs of millstone grit and emotional lava that dreams of clearer streams and glacial moraine.
Their music has glints of finer things as it works over some of the now familiar shapes and tricks of recent years. The trick, for example of dropping in an American announcer voice as a perceptual disorientation device. The waves started by Constellation still have plenty of energy but Solus Locus' musical journey is just starting and this advance base camp is a high altitude jumping off place for things to come. Lewis Cahill is the guitarist; Tom Bedford plays bass, Ned Jolley plays drums and Mike Jones works on keyboard and laptop.
