Flashlights & Force Publique

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• Cassie McNeil
• Ladytron
• Electronic Music
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

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"Glowing Eyes" finds Flashlights in a mood of deep, late-night contemplation. And that's fitting, because "New Hampshire" sounds like waking up just after dawn on a cloudy day before the fog has lifted. Along with the contemplative "Canoes," Flashlights display a real talent here for making sublimely surreal, hazy, pleasantly disorienting music. The Force Publique side of the split takes a turn for the darker with a warped dance track, "Tarnished." The quivering, spiraling synth lines, coupled with Cassie McNeil's sharp vocals and lo-fi production on "Absorbed," are reminiscent of early Ladytron, but fiercer and completely lacking a sense of detachment. "Distorted and Thin" is like an electroclash song by eastern European goth kids who read about it and made their version of that music before actually hearing it.