Glasgow producer Lamplighter tends to stay in the shadows and back alleyways of the electronic field. His music feels minimalist — with scattered percussion and skittering beats littering its sonic landscape – but never threadbare. As easy as it is to describe instrumental music as being overtly cinematic, Lamplighter has an almost preternatural sense of how music can inspire and create visual representations within our minds. And with his music often having deliberate chasms between the deceptively simple rhythms and his scattered instrumentation, the listener is allowed a good deal of leeway to create whatever scenario they deem appropriate. With the recent release of his latest EP, The Senses, he has created a mini-movie of stark, distilled electronica that is just waiting to soundtrack your next late night adventure.
On his latest single, the austere and minimalist “Mute,” the enigmatic producer pulls together the thinnest strands of ragged rhythms and chopped beats to create an atmosphere of musical uncertainty and abrupt beginnings and endings. The track roils with a narcotized pulse, as if the song is willing itself to stay awake while a slew of psychotropic influences attempt to shut it down. For the video to “Mute,” the lethargic beat is paired with gorgeous and often striking black and white animation, though there is some remarkable use of color at certain points. The images seem unrelated and develop into a kind of stream of conscious visual association, and this is further emphasized when we come across a reference that point to this all being a dream of the artist – or curiously enough, maybe it’s our dream.
Beats Per Minute is pleased to premiere the video for “Mute,” taken from Lamplighter’s recent EP, The Senses.
