EP Review: Lost at Sea

Lando is a 4-piece Alternative Rock band from Auckland’s North Shore. They self-produce, mix and record their music. Lost At Sea is a collection of songs over the years written by Orlando with some help from the other bandmates.

The sea theme comes up in various ways. Sevenths and delay always sound like the ocean. Notice ends on a surf rock chord with the little wah shake. Song titles like Blue Wave and Swimming in the Rain. Little water based metaphors strewn all over the lyrics in every song. The picture is of a lighthouse. I  like to imagine Orlando lived there writing for years and then got the band and gear together to record in the place he wrote it all in. But it was probably done in a basement in bilbosclubhouse.

The band  has a silky smooth grasp of dynamics, they’re able to slide around harder and softer moments in a song without breaking the laid back current of the whole EP. The mood stays reflective and  understated but swirls around hope and despair seamlessly within single songs. Props for this also go to Lando’s on-point production and mixing, the pieces and textures all fit together in perfect balance. There are no loose wires sticking out scraping your skull and pulling you out of the trance this EP lulls you into.

When I listen to Lost at Sea I often find my mind drifting off thinking about friends that have broken up with each other. That’s the kind of emotional distance this work lends itself to; it’s mournful but not all consuming. Like a brain that’s gotten really good at either or both of CBT and THC.

It ends on the heaviest hearted song, Ring Out The Time, which breaks the pattern set by the rest of the EP and drags you through thick, hopeless emotions with spine-chilling strings and haunted chords. If the rest of the songs feel like living in a lonely lighthouse then Ring Out The Time feels like being the only shipwrecked survivor on a tiny island nobody will ever find, keeping warm in the dark on the only bit of burnable timber that washed ashore.

Lando and the boys should be super proud of how this all came together. It’s a collection of songs that make a whole mass that knows what it is, but navigates its way around interesting and varied emotional permutations within that “Lost at Sea” setting. There’s supposed to be a full-length album on the way too. I’m looking forward to that one.