Lightning Dust: Amber Webber, Joshua Wells.
A side project by two members of Canadian space rockers Black Mountain, Lightning Dust supplants the doomy heaviness of its mother band with a country- and folk-influenced form of largely acoustic acid rock that fits neatly in with contemporaries ranging from Lavender Diamond to Joanna Newsom. On this self-titled debut, singer Amber Webber's siren vocals and the spooky otherworldliness of songs like "When You Go" and "Castles and Caves" make for a an entrancing, occasionally disturbing sound.
Compared to the duo that made their debut back in 2007, the Lightning Dust of 2009's Infinite Light sound just a touch gentler, more meditative, and smoothed out around the edges. Their sophomore full-length is full of sleek string arrangements (especially on "Dreamer") and graced with a heavy handful of computerized drum beats and reverb effects; in other words it's just as stark and strange as the duo's debut, only more elegantly dressed. Lightning Dust also sound quite a bit like the Handsome Furs on this release -- something that can be chalked up to a combination of gritty synthesizers, oily drum machines, and lead singer Amber Webber's hungry croon. As on the duo's first release, Webber is the main attraction here. She sounds haunted. She sounds like Chan Marshall with a Gatling-gun vibrato. What's more, her voice is the perfect complement to Lightning Dust's theatrical, darkly glimmering compositions. This is especially apparent when Joshua Wells, the other half of Lightning Dust, sings with Webber on "Honest Man"; his voice sounds awkwardly normal in juxtaposition to Webber's caterwaul. (To be fair, Webber and Wells probably sensed this; "Honest Man" is the only track that features Wells' vocals.) What makes Lightning Dust an intriguing project is how devilishly, drippingly weird they are, and they spend most of their time on Infinite Light playing it up. From slinky-sinister numbers like "Take It Home" and "Never Seen" to single-worthy rockers like "I Knew" and "The Times," Infinite Light shows that Lightning Dust haven't lost any momentum since the release of their self-titled debut. ~ Margaret Reges
Members of Vancouver's psychedelic space rock monster Black Mountain have formed several side projects up until this point, and what's striking is that all of these ensembles, duos, and solo acts have been consistently good. Lightning Dust, comprised of Amber Webber and Joshua Wells, is no exception; their self-titled debut is stark, curst, strange, and compelling. It's the sparse, meditative complement to Black Mountain's galloping repertoire: epic acid folk twined in the latter band's energy charged synth-trippery. To put it another way, this is Black Sabbath's witchy-hippy granddaughter, or Devendra Banhart's Mood-wielding twin sister. Lightning Dust, at its core, is all about Webber's deep, dark vocals (think Chan Marshall meets Grace Slick) and her haunting lyrics. And the fact that she's been given room to move into the forefront on Lightning Dust is pretty much the disc's biggest draw; she's come out from behind Black Mountain's sauropaud-sized rock and into her own. This album is by and large plodding and melancholy, but Lightning Dust manage to inject it with enough tension to keep things from growing sodden and mirey. In fact, the album is at its best when the mood is dark; the sole upbeat number, "Wind Me Up," actually sounds disproportionate and contrived compared to the rest of the tracks. Wells and Webber haven't delved into strikingly new territory on this disc; many of the tracks found here, "Take Me Back" and "Heaven" in particular, sound like they'd be right at home on a Black Mountain release. If there's anything to be learned from Lightning Dust, it's that Webber's talent is essentially buried under the weight of Black Mountain. She's a huge vocalist, and in some respects she might be a more rewarding musician than Black Mountain frontman Stephen McBean. ~ Margaret Reges

Uncut (p.106) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he shadowy and skeletal, slightly foreboding beauty of their songs...[recalls] a doomier Mazzy Star."
CMJ (p.39) - "Reverb and echoes swaddle nearly every note....The most affecting moments are when the two share vocals..."