"From Foam…" the vocal-less beginning track has this sort of relaxing
tone to it -- a lucid quality built of synth-based melody and beating
drums, externally free-flowing while internally turbulent and a perfect
introduction to the sixteen following tracks. Firstly there's no
indication as to the current status of this band as the compilation here
covers select recordings drawn from actual compilation appearances -- of
which there must have been many -- spanning the early nineties when Lycia
first arrived onto the Gothic/Dark Wave scene… other expressions prove
equally proficient -- Electronic; Ambient; New Wave/New Age, etc. but place
them right along side the likes of such past pioneers as Bauhaus, The
Church, or Clan of Xymox.
The material here is pegged from what were
known as "The Arizona Years" and compiled from '90 -'94. The styles
range somewhat but mainly fall within the expanse of Gothic, built
around dark motifs and often unsettling combinations as with "Excade
Decade Decada" which utilizes a dynamic rush of synthesized feedback
over an insistent drum and bass rhythm, haunting in its fatal charm and
very disturbing throughout.
"Byzantine" sequentially follows the
similar path as the preceding, plodding along in a cloudy setting, cool
and damp, mesmerizing and dynamic all at once, there's less instrumental
vice found here, favoring rather simple beats and overdramatic keyboard
ambience that provides as full an aural presence as you're likely to
find.
The music contained herein is usually haunting and slow-moving,
dynamically woven, alternatively contrasting with anything remotely Pop
while decisively desolate -- there's a hollowness that rings forth
effortlessly providing that ambient texture brought about earlier,
nearly New Age in some instances with a much chillier quality.
"The
Dust Sessions" carries the last quarter of the recording, undoubtedly
pulled from their earlier moments, nearly inaudible in some instances,
indefinable in most -- a post-modern sea of instability the precedes and
evokes the brilliance from which they would soon follow -- an unfounded
assertion on my part that seems to equate.
Lycia was or is a
significant contributor to the many bands and artists who've effectively
shielded themselves from the light of mainstream and remain an integral
part of this rapidly moving underground culture as this first volume of
previously hard to find material is indicative of.
