Lumen Lab - They Are Killing Us

by Daniel Cressey

published: 30 / 5 / 2016

Label: Aagoo Records
Format: CD

Challenging but compelling third album from Lumen Lab, the nom de plume for Mexican electronic musician Diege Martinez

Review

Lumen Lab have created a challenging and at times disturbing album with 'They Are Killing Us.' Opening track ‘Granola’ starts lightly enough but its gentle tones soon become layered in increasingly fragmented samples until any semblance of order breaks down. A bit further on and ‘Radical’ adds in some old-fashioned metal style vocal growls to the mix, over a slightly sinister electro-line. Then those are smashed into pieces and reassembled into something that seems designed to trigger paranoid attacks. But the time you hit the midway point - if you stay that distance - this album reaches levels of organised chaos that can (in this reviewer’s experience) trigger people who wander into earshot to exclaim “What is this?”, before hurriedly leaving. As you might infer from the name, 'They Are Killing Us' is not a happy album. Tracks coalesce into headnodding beats only for long enough to become recognisable electronica, before they quickly evolve into something more difficult to categorise or even pin down. At times this feels less like a musical journey and more like a kidnapping that drags you along, blindfolded and confused as to where you are being taken. For all that though, 'They Are Killing Us' is worth persevering with. Even as I write this review, I’m listening to it again, trying to decide if I like it or am baffled by it, if its swerving turns are bold compositions or just near-random collections of digital equipment outputs. But after repeated hours, I am still listening, convinced there is something here.