This is the new church music.
Though not religious – at least, not in any conventional sense -- The Late Cord’s debut EP, Lights from the Wheelhouse, is certainly prayerful, a deep, contemplative blend of the acoustic and electronic, the traditional and experimental, the lyrical and abstract. Here, a slow, simmering organ shares the space with a jack-in-the-box thumb piano, crackly synth loops and incantatory choruses. There, a tentative guitar and droning organ frame the mood for a world-weary voice while electronic droplets patter like moisture in an abandoned building.
The dual nature and strange coherence of The Late Cord aren’t surprising, considering its members, John-Mark Lapham and Micah P. Hinson, are each from completely different musical backgrounds but share the same birthplace – the small, arid West Texas town of Abilene.