Lights from the Wheelhouse

Micah P. Hinson returns in his finest form alongside crooning buddy John-Mark Lapham

This is the new church music. Though not religious in the conventional sense, The Late Cord's chilling and compelling 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 the abstract, spread across 5 tracks of intensely personal music.

The dual nature and strange coherence of The Late Cord shouldn't surprise, considering the band is made up of John-Mark Lapham and Micah P. Hinson, two remarkable musicians from completely different musical backgrounds.

Lapham has recently broken into the UK scene with his group The Earlies, whose debut album 'These Were The Earlies' blazed trails across their indie underground, while Hinson is known in this country for his superb 'And The Gospel Of Progress' album [& exceptional solo Auckland show], which sees the young crooner in gritty, emotionally bare folk mode.

Though Hinson's sound is entirely different to The Earlies' crashing, playful rock, 'Lights from the Wheelhouse' shows inspiration trumps differences. In fact, the finished sound here is surprisingly simple, devotional almost. Hinson's intoxicating, gravelly baritone is the focal point - steeped in resignation and longing, it falls away to a chilling moan, a cold wind.

With these two young musicians' individual careers taking off so rapidly, it's a miracle that 'Lights from the Wheelhouse' even happened. And it's a good thing it did, as this gorgeous EP holds enough weight and beauty to last for the rest of this year.