Walking On A Flashlight Beam is the latest effort from Lunatic Soul, the solo project of Riverside’s Mariusz Duda. Nine tracks of rather atmospheric ambience, it’s a good easy listen that’s perfect to just sit back and chill to. The songs progress nicely from each one to the next and the vocals are light and airy; there’s a lot of body to them yet they’re not overpowering and it makes for a great listen as a result.
A particularly good track is The Fear Within. Although the song itself mainly consists of one fairly simplistic idea repeating over and over, it embodies the title of the song well. It’s just massively haunting, and almost as if you’re inside the head of someone who’s bottling up their fear and it’s manifesting inside them – it’s really striking, to say the least.
Another great inclusion is Gutter, which is a more vocal-driven song. The vocal melody is smooth and gentle, and the music underneath has a rather funky tone to it which helps keep everything flowing rather well.
Sky Drawn In Crayon is a bit more of a difficult listen, however. It starts off well enough, in the same sort of vein as the other tracks of the album, but in the latter half of the album a strange sort of repeating electronic-type tone plays atop of the rest of the music and it all feels a bit out of place, like you’ve accidentally pressed play on another song and the two are clashing together. It’s a unique inclusion to the song but it just doesn’t work.
As a whole, Walking On A Flashlight Beam is a great listen and an intriguing piece you’ll keep wanting to come back to.
8/10
