Nzca Lines - Infinite Summer


Nzca Lines
Infinite Summer
2016
Spotify

Romantic? Sci-Fi? Pretentious? Beautiful? All are words that could be used to describe the new record from Nzca Lines. Like the album cover shows Infinite Summer guides you through summer vacation in space all the lovers, the sights and the emotions that come with that magical three months of the year, but imagine that feeling was actually a place. With that jumping off point you can see that Nzca Lines is ambitious if not more than a little pretentious. "Persephone Dreams" starts as a nice little beautiful song, but goes on for far to long and suddenly a steel drum appears out of no where which sticks out like a sore thumb. When Jamie xx used the instrument on In Colour it was novel and felt important, but when it is shoe horned in it simply doesn't work. Infinite Summer is also super heady, taking the most basic tracks and adding to them until they are complex and full of depth. "Chemical is Obvious" could be an easy dance track in another life, but Nzca Lines brings in the mood to it, where you want to dance but only with a scowl on your face. "Two Hearts" seems to be the real attempt at a pop single yet it still retains a vibe that is quite standoffish. It is almost as if Nzca Lines feels like with this music He is letting you in on something hush hush, a real hipster dance party.

One really smart move from Michael Lovett was the inclusion of Hot Chip's Sarah Jones and Charlotte Hatherley, their voices really round out his somewhat robotic sounding voice and really add some great layers vocally. The overarching concept is a dystopian future filled with constant partying and missed connections, but the album really feels far less about the actual situational events and more about the feelings behind those events. Evoking is like the best word to describe this record because track after track Lovett is pulling something from you, a deep feeling you may not have even know you had living down there. Structurally Infinite Summer is damn near perfection each track building upon and expanding the one before without really tying them together in a direct kind of way. "Jessica" is a late upbeat straight pop song that has this insanely good bounce to it and if you can keep your toes from tapping during this one more power to you. Infinite Summer is a fantastic take on pop, synthpop and electropop following in the footsteps of Hot Chip and Neon Indian. This is certainly a nice one to round out 2016.

8.1 out of 10

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