A band consisting of two military brats with dual citizenship now residing in Austria and their sidekick are making music for every corner of the globe that wants to listen to a strongly brewed blend of intriguingly well-roasted Doomgaze á la Spotlights and a spicy Prog-Core-shot infused in Thrice-fashion and in the end it all tastes like a refreshing take on Cave-In. Can’t fathom that? Go ahead, try Lehnen and their new record Negative Space!
Working on a music blog de-mystifies a lot of thoughts on has about the music industry, for example when you hear a really good “new” band and find out this release you want to talk about is already their fifth full-length and you catch yourself saying way too loudly “WTF?!?! Why has the world not been listening to this band for years?!” There are several answers for that but at the same time it is important to step from these questions because at the end of most of them lies nothing but madness and despair. However, if you flip the coin it is also obvious how glorious working on a music blog is because you can discover music all the time and support amazing new bands further.
Lehnen is now a three-piece after guitarist Martin left the band and they probably needed the time between their last full-length, 2015’s Reaching Over Ice And Waves, to restructure themselves and find new ways of making music. Nevertheless, when flipping the coin of a band member leaving it is amazing how well Lehnen made use of the situation and came up with ten new songs that all are ridiculously good if you have a penchant for Space-Rock, think of Cave-In’s Antenna or Hum’s You’d Prefer An Astronaut, or well-made alternative, progressive Hardcore, like Thrice’ Major/Minor or Circa Survive’s Juturna.
They have a knack for writing songs that seem to embrace the listener by having these wonderful wide-open sound which seem to meander endlessly until the listener simply falls into the outstretched arms and lets the warmth make everything feel better – one perfect example is the opening of the title track. The band has found a way to work with two synths so effectively that one must place them in a line with really good synthie Post-Rock bands like Immanu El or ef.
The guys wanted to give the world a record about the difficulty of living in a world, where everyone in any corner of the globe has the world at the command of his fingertips, yet at the same time we are losing the connection to it. All of this, of course, leads to a new version of reality where we must try to blend the real and the virtual and the spot in between this blend, the little gap of the “and” - that is the negative space. Nevertheless, as digitalization progresses mankind must face the fact that blending both worlds is virtually impossible, that there will always be this space: in earlier times, reality was the better choice between the alternatives, nowadays that might have already turned around so that the real life is one trying to keep up with the virtual. It is very simple to see the thematic connection between the identification of the negative space and the music which tries to show us that there are other people out there who also witness this transgression into the virtual and regression of the real and who can put this best into songs that are very driven, that are able to console us and that are also meant to wake us up, for we might be the last generation to see this negative space from the point more rooted to the older version of the gap.
Lehnen is a band that shows the author of these lines how amazing being a music journalist is and also reminds everyone that a change of perception of the space between reality and virtuality is still possible at the moment. When listening closely, it becomes more and more apparent where the three guys position themselves – a spot that every real lover of music will adopt easily. As easily as seeing how amazing these ten songs are. Don’t let Lehnen pass you by, listen to Negative Space and erase this blank – you will be rewarded!
