With a haunting sound and ominously reverb drenched melodies, Lower Heaven live up to their name which they've taken from an Echo and the Bunnymen lyric. Absorbing and reinterpreting influences like My Bloody Valentine, Hawkwind, and the Jesus and Mary Chain, the band has been able to defy constraints of genre classification by keeping the song writing, arrangement, instrumentation, and production of their work unconventional and innovative. Having finely tuned a sound that is very much their own.
Marcos Chloka starts strumming his autoharp, introducing a new dimension to this genre and typically the first thing you will notice about this band. Christina Park's driving bass lines are alongside as Stephen Swesey begins rhythmically shadowing her. Tommy Danbury’s electric guitar swells and the song dives into what feels like a lucid dream. Marcos’ lyrics start to tell what seems to be a bitter tale of pain; “Bring me down or lift me up / Clean me up inside / I have seen the ghost of me / I’ve been sick and dry”. Whichever the case may be, these dark themes of lost love, despair, and disarray are perfectly suited to fit Lower Heaven’s live enigma.
Having shared the stage with such bands as Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Black Angels, Dead Meadow and Darker my Love, Lower Heaven’s members (whose musical backgrounds currently include; Spindrift, Languis, and Tristeza) have been steadily creating a buzz for themselves in the rapid current which is the Los Angeles art/music scene.
"Lower Heaven from L.A. are startling and dramatic like a Baudelaire poem meets the Cocteau Twins. If I ever needed to score a beautiful and lush dream sequence to a beautiful dream, they’d be my first choice. " ----Portableshrines.com
"Chloka’s electric autoharp adds silvery, glittering chings! like glimmers of light. Every song has magic and a shimmery beauty, and there are no fillers or fluff. Beyond the obvious 80’s influence, I hear something deeper in some songs that reminds me of the Doors’ Strange Days–lost in the dark but somehow comfortable with it."
------speed of dark
"Lower Heaven’s euphonic tones are cast in gray heather, creating something beautiful in its malaise. Indeed, singer Marcos Chloka puts it into words when he sings, “I don’t need to see the sun. I think I’ve seen the sun enough... I just want to see some rain,” on the simply titled “Rain.” It’s these contrasting foggy notions of allure and elegy, light and dark that give the band its dynamic and depth. This chasm is cut deepest on “Lose It All At Once,” where the thundering gloom of its refrains parts to let the chorus cast its piercing light. Here, and on the record as a whole, the band proves that they’re not standing in anyone’s shadow, but shine brightest in the dark nonetheless."
-----The Agit Reader
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