Pitchfork

Son Lux is classically trained composer Ryan Lott, the Anticon label's latest step away from hip-hop as it is traditionally understood and toward greater abstraction. "Break", the opening track from forthcoming Son Lux debut album At War With Walls and Mazes, applies underground hip-hop's collage aesthetic using borrowed beats, backwards instrumental squiggles, and snippets of crowd noise, but mostly it's a quavering piano ballad, with the somber complexity of latter-day Radiohead. In that sense, the track could fit alongside the more subdued moments on labelmate Why?'s recent The Hollows EP, specifically Nick Thorburn of Islands' contribution, "Broken Crow". "Is there no one left to break you down?" Lott sings in a hoarse, fragile whisper. Son Lux might not break it down Cool Kids style, exactly-- Lott's first show in this guise was a college festival slot opening for Sufjan Stevens-- but he's put together something dark and intriguing here.

MP3:> Son Lux: "Break"
[from At War With Walls and Mazes; due 02/19/08 on Anticon]