On 2016's Borrowed Floors,
Lithics' bracing post-punk arrived fully formed:
Bob Desaulniers' bass carried most of the music's melody as well as its rhythm, while
Mason Crumley and
Aubrey Hornor's stabbing, scrabbling guitars and
Wiley Hickson's elastic drumming provided the perfect foil for
Hornor's hypnotically detached vocals. Since then, they've brought that sound into starker focus with each album.
Lithics proved they could be uncompromising and undeniably catchy on
Mating Surfaces, which bounced hooks off the songs' angles in subversive ways. On
Tower of Age, the band dials in its frequency even more clearly. There wasn't much fat to trim off of
Lithics' sound to begin with, but their growing control makes for more exciting music as they stretch out or pull in tightly as each song demands. Their willingness to leave negative space in their music remains courageous and unsettling, and
Lithics wield it eloquently on "Non," where each clipped phrase comes to a sharp point and the gaps between
Hornor's vocals feel like poetry. On the standout "Hands," guitars tingle with anxiety -- or anticipation -- at the mere suggestion of physical contact before exploding in klaxon-like outbursts. Later, the disconnection between "Mice in the Night"'s frantic scurrying and beatless passages hints at secrets behind familiar surfaces.
Lithics' interplay is at once tighter and more unpredictable on
Tower of Age, with songs like "Beat Fall" continuing
Mating Surfaces' trend of more direct but never obvious songwriting. There's a little more melody in the taunting riffs of "Victim's Jacket" and in
Hornor's voice on "An Island" as she elongates some words and chops off others in a calmly challenging manner that's more striking than shouting would be. Despite these subtle changes, the almost visual quality to
Lithics' music remains a joy in its own prickly, abstract way.
Hornor's vocals and
Desaulniers' bass draw wavy, intertwining lines on "Twisting Vine"; "Tower of Age" juts out at Dutch angles and tangents; and "The Symptom" slides and droops, as though the strings pulling the album's other songs taut finally broke.
Lithics' studies in contrast are more fascinating and masterful than ever on
Tower of Age, and prove once again that they're experts at minimalist music with maximum impact.