LEMMENO - MOVE ON/HEAVENS SINGLE REVIEW

Lemmeno is a relatively new three-piece musical band, composed of habitants of the stretch of land between Wilmington and Philadelphia. On the low end, chordal and thumping as always, RD Yoder is the heart thumping outside the chest of Lemmeno. Opposite RD, Joni’s unique baritone guitar comes in howling, sporadic, feedback-laced bursts, like gnashing teeth or talons of any and all kinds. Heck, I don't even follow half the techniques Lemmeno's sweat-soaked drummer Shane powers out on drums. I've come to prefer it that way across the times I've seen the band conjure its flaming sounds in person, which is a genuinely confusing experience at first. Enlightened with the knowledge of bizarre scales, modes, and counting, it's a sound not unlike “a little lizard crawling across your brain”, as described by Delaware multi-instrumentalist Evan Kipp. The goal of Lemmeno's cries are singular - to bring out that scrunchy "huh?" face, be it a product of genuine disgust or strange joy. Lemmeno's eyebrow-raising sound has transcendent destructive power far beyond the band's thirty fingers, ten strings, and two sticks. It's an aura many creators only have nightmares of cultivating, and Lemmeno pull it off not just willingly, but with relative ease.

Lemmeno's Single on Bandcamp

It's all but understandable if you can't find enjoyment in the teeth-grinding, foreboding ambience of Lemmeno's single - but pity would also be in order. Lemmeno’s groove is not impenetrable, but it's as intense as a white-hot, sun-drenched, noontime in some barren wasteland. Like free-jazz for the sweat-stained desert apocalypse, Lemmeno trudge forth across the slime, gloomy and tense as can be. The screams offered by all three members are the cries of survivors of long-lost urban sprawl, corroded overnight into a nuclear wasteland. If you adore the original Mad Max or the music of Slint and Unwound, Lemmeno are no doubt your next favorite sonic threat. Lemmeno lies in wait for your listening displeasure, a noodle soup of barbed wire, gasoline, and power lines - go get it while it's hot.