- Glorious, heart-tugging sunset techno from a rising Dublin duo.
- Long Island Sound—the Dublin duo of Timmy Nolan and Rob Roche—have spent the last few years trying to find a home, both geographically and musically, moving from Dublin to Berlin and back again, and eventually starting their own label, Signs Of Space. In an interview with Four Four the same year, the duo said they were “trying to bring people on a bit of a trip with the label,” a vision that comes to life on the sprawling and adventurous Lost Connection, their first album and most significant work to date.
The LP puts the euphoric-but-melancholy side of Nolan and Roche's work on full display. They have a knack for toeing the fine line between these two feelings, an ambiguous middle that keeps the listener in the palm of their hands. Put simply, the duo make a cross-pollination of house, progressive and trance-influenced sounds, with a big-room polish that any techno, gabber or even drum & bass fan should be able to appreciate. Their sound is emotional but rarely grandiose—instead it feels relatable, conjuring warm and fuzzy moods.
Take "Every Time I See Your Face." It's a goofy house tune, with the title lyrics fed through a vocoder, gurgling above a clunky bassline. While the main motif is a thoughtful arrangement of tinkling piano notes, the vocal is syrupy, evoking the tripping-over-your-feet feels that come with a teenage crush. There's also a distorted vocal beneath the broken groove on "Fragments." It's a bit like something Deadmau5 would've used circa 2009, but it works in tandem with the breaky, Special Request-flavored percussion. "Ataria" returns the duo to their trademark light and airy tones, a slow-burner that brims with stirring chords and warbly vocals. It has that foundational Long Island Sound mix: introspective but happy.
"Dusk" is another tune that ebbs and flows between hands-in-the-air chords and a lagging kick drum, but this time there's a more obvious sadness lurking beneath it all, particularly with the choral vocals. It's here that Long Island Sound really nails that feeling of a bittersweet ending—like at a festival just as the sun sets and the security starts to usher the crowd out. "Dusk" wouldn’t go amiss as the closing tune in a Bicep set somewhere outdoors this summer.
"Lost Connection," on the other hand, could soundtrack the dramatic close of an indie coming-of-age film, with celestial chimes and stabby synth notes creating a sense of finale. Just when it feels like the track is finally about to drop it ends abruptly, leaving a sense of yearning for one more floaty groove. Although Lost Connection doesn't stray far from the pair's usual dreamy textures, it's an exquisitely-produced selection of their trademark sounds that pulls on the right heartstrings, the result of years of finessing their craft and understanding each other as producers, as well as the tricky border between big emotions and schmaltz.
Tracklist01. Ataria
02. Dusk
03. Fragments
04. Every Time I See Your Face
05. Power
06. Turbulence
07. Lost Connection