Oakland five piece Naked Lights—who are releasing their record On Nature on January 29 via Castle Face Records—are a blast from the post punk and no wave past. On "Hedges," the first single from the new album, lead singer Aurora Crispin radiates fire in the way Lizzy Mercier Descloux did back in the '70s. It's a doozy.
The song was indeed heavily influenced by late '70s post punk and experimental rhythms. As Naked Lights' Cameron Stephens and Christopher Sprague told The FADER in an email: "During long hectic Oakland nights while waiting to rehearse and enjoying records, the band unanimously began to reconnect with the rhythms of one Charles Hayward of This Heat. The subliminal dub-like backbone may also nod towards the On-U Sound productions of the same era." According to Stephens and Sprague, the sound of "Hedges" is "a conversation piece among people or perhaps a vague outline between instruments, as is such in life."
"Reflecting on writing 'Hedges,'" says Crispin, "the term 'gaslighting' (a form of mental abuse information is twisted to make victims doubt their own memory, perception, and sanity) seems to appropriately encapsulate the navigation of my experience, the checks and balances of love, work and life that I put into words." Stream "Hedges" below.