Albums : Late Night Alumni : The Beat Becomes A Sound

Albums : Late Night Alumni : The Beat Becomes A Sound

Listen To Late Night Alumni : The Beat Becomes A Sound

Who Is Late Night Alumni?
Late Night Alumni: Ryan Raddon, Becky Jean Williams, John Hancock, Finn Bjarnson (from left to right)

Finn Bjarnson stumbled upon Becky Jean Williams in the summer of 2003. "I had just been given a local Christmas CD that I had produced a couple tracks for," Finn recalls, "and as I was listening through the tracks, there she was! Her beautiful voice and style immediately struck me." A couple of phone calls later and they were in the studio together for the first time. "I had worked up this song called 'Empty Streets' and wanted to try her voice out on it..." Finn continues, "and it took off from there!"

Finn had already been working in the studio with Ryan Raddon (aka Kaskade), and soon Finn, Ryan, and Becky formed Late Night Alumni. In 2004, Hed Kandi made an offer to license and release a full length Late Night Alumni album. "At that point," Finn says, "I knew the band was not ready. We were missing an element." That missing element turned out to be John Hancock; a talented local producer with whom Finn had been trying to "find an excuse" to work with for years. The band was complete and hard at work at the debut Late Night Alumni album; mixing electronic and organic elements for a unique brand of chill that is easily distinguishable in today's down tempo house music scene.

Their first album,"Empty Streets" came out in September of 2005. Around the same time, Hed Kandi was bought out by Ministry of Sound and the album got shelved. However, despite the label not working the album it soon grew into an underground classic. All around the world die-hard fans who supported "Empty Streets" spread the word of Late Night Alumni.

The single also entitled "Empty Streets" received massive support in both the clubs and on the radio getting Top Ten Radio Play in the UK and US, and reaching #1 in Spain. "Empty Streets" has also been licensed to commercials including a spot for the Toyota IQ. Plus, more than a dozen of the world's biggest dance compilations have licensed the track, and it remains the most popular and downloaded song on Tietso's "In Search Of Sunrise" compilation.

After signing with Ultra Records in 2009, Late Night Alumni's sophomore album "Of Birds, Bees, Butterflies, Etc." was released. The single "You Can Be The One" as well as the track "Uncharted" were featured on Steve Carells' "Crazy, Stupid Love". Later in 2011, their third album "Haunted" was released and their fourth album is scheduled to be released later this year.  Late Night Alumni is poised to get its music out to a larger audience and to reconnect with those who have already fallen in love with their ethereal brand of house music.

The Beat Becomes A Sound Review 
Late Night Alumni has always been a smooth mix between what people call Lounge and House –sometimes called Chill House or Deep House. Genres aside, LNA really knows how to please the ears whether it’s with live-recorded strings, haunting pianos, or ethereal vocals. And with legendary House producer/artist Kaskade involved, what’s not to like? The album The Beat Becomes a Sound is both engaging and smart and hits you in a place—wherever that may be—where you feel the struggle of the day-to-day. This journey is found in the melodies, the lyrics, and the instrumentation. It’s a journey that those who’ve been in failed relationships know all too well.

For anyone who’s paying attention to the lyrics, The Beat Becomes a Sound paints a very real and tangible feeling of mood held in the balance. “Ring A Bell” is a good intro to Late Night Alumni in general and a great introspection into their other three albums—a little quick-beat drums, a resonating guitar, and a voice sent directly from Heaven to appease our souls. It has a groove (yes, indeed, a groove—you’ll know what I mean) that only Late Night Alumni are alumnus of. It reminds me of their earlier songs “The Rest of You” and “Uncharted” or “Light Reading” with polished instruments and cool jazzy/lounge little bits that keep you excited to restart the album beginning with track one. “The World Spins ‘Round” stays along that similar path but this is (lyrically) the first hint of darkness, and there is nothing wrong with that! Judging by the melody, you wouldn’t be able to hear the angst, but this song battles darkly with the ‘self’. “In the dark my heart skips a beat and I swear I’m not the somebody I see,” Becky sings pseudo-happily. Is it happy? Something tells me that the world is spinning but it’s not in a happy merry-go-round.

Beneath the rising trombones and trumpets of “Every Breath Is Like a Heartbeat” are some deep lyrics singing about our unknown nature as sparkling stars who don’t quite understand our brilliance yet. It’s a song that sings to someone else somewhat confrontationally, and yet gently and sadly. “You’re the star, but you’re still wondering what you are,” Becky sings with contrasting horns blasting happily (dramatically? Ominously?) in the background. This happy-sad song comes after the album’s single “Shine” which illuminates our self-worth and really prepares us for the next slope we find ourselves angling down. “Sun Space”, the fourth track on the album, is perhaps the darkest track in the bunch that gives the album a very deep and dark depth. Becky sings—with her very angelic, haunting voice—a tale of someone who has likely underwent a separation of hearts. “Veiled in a minor key… I remain”, really sets the tone for a sinking and dismal place we may find ourselves in occasionally . What’s really great about all of this is Becky’s angelic voice painted so darkly with these burdens. It’s a weight that we as listeners feel above and beneath our skin.

Of course, “Days” (the song right after) is an island, tropical tune designed to make you feel happy, and surely it’ll inspire some sort of shoulder-wiggling or foot-tapping—I know for one that I couldn’t help it. And yet, the lyrics come from a place of hurt. A place of misunderstood love. “If I were poetry, I’m sure you’d misread me”.  In the lapse of the song, four days pass and her mind is stuck on the sunset skies of someone who meant something to her. Powerful phantoms of a loved one are hard to shake and the next track “My Awake” continues with this theme, and ends up becoming what may be the fullest and most complete track on the album (and my favorite). The lyrics are moving, real, and tinged with a mood that might make you want to cry and dance all at once. This confusion is acceptable because the melody is fast-paced and fulfilling. You yearn for more and yet you may not be realizing what exactly you are yearning for.

“It’s Only Life”, the ninth song on this moody album, won’t improve your Facebook status (unless sadness is your thing) and it’s actually the first song that could move your very soul in a very human way. Becky’s voice languishes and calls out for something… what is it? A happy ending? A life that she can keep for herself? The melody drifts along and you may find yourself zoning out—not because the song is boring, far from it—but because your heart and your soul understand what your mind may not.

“Sapphire” will likely become the anthem at both Late Night Alumni and Kaskade’s future tours. It’s huge. No. Let me say it again. Huge. It’ll nail you to the wall and you will likely be grateful for it. “Sapphire, you’re like twilight and gunfire,” Becky incants, building the build until the build builds with builds. Kaskade’s hand in this song MUST be heavy. It lifts you from the darkness of the past few songs and (perhaps literally) throws you forward. “I bet you’d rather not be on your own,” she sings. “Take in some oxygen and lift up your chin… open your head and let someone in.” I know for a fact that I now have a new opinion of the color sapphire.

The last two songs “Mistake” and “Everything” will let you down easy and leave you contemplating your own struggles, further building upon an album of troublesome love. I find that the last four lines of final track are most revealing of all: “We stand in the snow but I can’t feel the cold. Your lips are like ice, maybe like ice, they’ll break.” This, of course, comes after she sings again and again: “I could be everything to you”, which really speaks to one-sided relationships where you think you can withstand the temperatures thrown at you, but you’re really hoping for a release; hoping for glimpse of passion in those cracked, frigid lips of his or hers, and not realizing that you’re numb too, and maybe your lips are just as frozen. Whether Becky breaks the ice, we shall never know.

So what is this album about? I think it’s about polarity. It’s about how no matter what you try—how much you convince yourself of your inner-light—relationships always have the tendency to pull you down. The corners tear even in the healthiest of relationships. The person you see in the mirror is not always the someone you want to see. You might look out the window and see sunshine and not feel ready to face it, and that’s cool, because eventually you will be. This album is totally about the struggle of love and life in general and knowing that the sun really does shine on the other side, but sometimes you’re left asking yourself, ‘How do I reach it?’. The polarity of life will take you on a powerful journey and this album will give you a surreal glimpse into that adventure. The beat that becomes a sound may end up not being a happy one, or maybe it is, but one thing is for sure: there’s infinite beauty in the struggle that comes between us and our happiness and Becky’s songwriting has brought us into the middle of the battlefield. And it’s beautiful. So. Beautiful.

This new album by Late Night Alumni is the best yet. Not many artists continue getting better and better with each passing album and it’s incredibly telling of Finn Bjarnson, Becky Jean Williams, John Hancock, and Ryan Raddon’s abilities to keep a progression of beautiful sounds hitting our eardrums. Keep us sighing with the moods LNA! Thanks for the journey.


Contact Late Night Alumni
Website | Facebook | Twitter | GM | Booking

Contact Safe In Orbit
Website

Sources : Late Night Alumni Photo | Listen To The Beat Becomes A Sound | Late Night Alumni Biography | The Beat Becomes A Sound Review

Purchase : iTunes | Amazon