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Montreal-based Besnard Lakes,
built around the core duo of Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas,
debuted in the shadow of shoegazers such as
My Bloody Valentine and
Jesus And Mary Chain
with Volume 1 (2003).
Are The Dark Horse (Jagjaguwar, 2007) marked a quantum leap forward in
terms of arrangement (including strings and horns) and songwriting.
It better demonstrated the duo's ability to span several ages and styles within
the same composition: doo-wop of the 1950s, psychedelic-pop of
the 1960s, West Coast sound of the 1970s,
college-rock of the 1980s, post-rock of the 1990s,
and alt-country of the 2000s.
Fundamentally elegiac in nature
(with the notable exception of Devastation, that inherits from the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour the sense of a surreal merry-go-round),
the program of the Besnard Lakes is a study in warping space and time via
repetition and variation, an idea best expressed in On Bedford and Grand.
That quality is given a metaphysical meaning by the
sweet slow-motion prayer of For Agent (a modern version of Popol Vuh's Hosianna Mantra with a one-minute crescendo of triumphant ecstasy)
and by
Because Tonight, that opens hypnotically with sparse echoes of reggae and
chamber music, but then intones a hymn-like melody against fibrillating guitar.
They are both spiritual oases in a desert of anguished hedonism.
The dangers of Lasek's program are evident in And You Lied to Me, a bad imitation of late, melodramatic Pink Floyd, and
Disaster, that feels like Burt Bacharach in a psychedelic trance: just transposing someone else's art into the 2000s
does not qualify as art itself.
Besnard Lakes' lead guitarist Steve Raegele debuted solo with
Last Century (2009).
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