Radical Bicep, Lisa Marie Perkins & Diamond Ace - light//touch
Review by Karl Magi
Overall Album Impressions
Radical Bicep, Lisa Marie Perkins & Diamond Ace’s “light//touch” is a dream that floats just out of reach with melancholy affection and surreal imagery, drifting somewhere between loss and passion. Lisa Marie Perkins’ unmatchable voice carries gossamer gentleness punctuated by fierce expression, while Diamond Ace’s guitar unwinds in swaths of emotive notes that transmit pure feeling. Radical Bicep paints backgrounds full of melodies and harmonies that enrich the entire album. Atmosphere and humanity are the keystones of the musical experience that permeate light//touch.
A galaxy of sound defines Lisa Marie Perkins’ vocal performances on “light//touch.” Her voice can be like a soft breeze gliding across the ocean or the heartbreaking touch of someone leaving forever as it ventures through the music. Her ability to grasp the lyrics and transform them into unalloyed sensations brings me closer to each song and immerses me in it. Her range and flexibility allow all of the feelings within the album to filter out and fill me to the brim.
Diamond Ace uses his guitar with evocative skill to capture the nuances and complexities of emotion on “light//touch.” His playing brings out the wistful and broken nature of the songs, and his solos are detailed and full of impassioned expression. The emotional interpretation he brings to the music helps boost the vocal performances and weave a supporting tapestry that suits Lisa Marie Perkins and her own approach to performance.
Backing all of the songs up, Radical Bicep produces a mood and atmosphere that is mournful and delicate, a web of connected sounds that draw imagery from the music and outline the vocal performances and guitar playing. Each synth sound and melodic component elicits moving sensations and paints tonal colors that unfold in a patchwork quilt of feeling.
My Favourite Songs Analyzed
“A Further Melding” spreads outward like the dawn as radiance grows into reverent ethereality, exhaling as feather-light tones float on the delicate breezes of synth that echo as majestic weight rises. Rhythm comes alive with a strength and vivacity that grabs me with excitement and Diamond Ace’s guitar creates images of flight and escape. The guitar flies like a gigantic bird on wide wings before glowing tones fall silent.
With an insistent undulation, “Stars” grows into being as fragile notes flicker distantly, swelling into motion as moonlight pierces the atmosphere and a melody emerges that captures adventure and powerfully moving feeling, carrying surreal and beautiful words. Lisa Marie Perkins takes every lyric and delivers it with forceful conviction into my heart while the melody evokes soaring through celestial environments, painting dreamlike sensations.
As the gripping vocal performance flashes with fervent emotion, rhythmic pulsations thunder while mingled feelings intertwine in Lisa Marie Perkins’ deeply touching delivery. Cosmic radiance lingers as tumbling heft moves with the floating words, hovering in suspended animation before the song ends.
“I saw myself in silver skies, falling slow with open eyes,” as the storyteller felt no pain, just the “past like whispering glass.” Time unraveled too quickly as she “fell into the light but never broke through.” She was smothered in truth, cocooned, and “floating in amber, lost in a stream,” like a prisoner “dreaming inside of a dream.”
Reaching for the ground, she found it vanishing in smoke as the “stars sang for me.” She reached out for the song subject’s voice, but its reply was that “I wasn’t crying, I was learning to hide.” All of her doubts evaporated, and “between the cold and the fire, all that I touched, it melted away.”
In conclusion, she says, “Your branches beg me to stay, your branches flowing with cold light.”
Gargantuan rhythmic heft spreads outward with conviction as “Afterimage” explores internal struggle and change. Subtle phosphorescence swells before the heaving bottom end pulses, joined by Lisa Marie Perkins’ captivating performance, carrying emotion with earnestness as she drives her message into me with undeniable expression.
As the chorus bursts like a brilliant sun, positivity reverberates above massive underpinnings before a rhythmic heartbeat charges once more. Glistening like thousands of tiny fireflies, synth shimmers before Diamond Ace’s guitar draws images of hope and resilience. He paints a portrait of struggle and resolution with sonic colour and intricacy. Lisa Marie Perkins transforms her vocals into a journey of discovery and emotion before the song closes.
“Everyone has their monsters in the mirror” that stare back at you. The narrator asks where we go when we are lost and when we die, wondering if it’s the sky above. She is “chasing things you wouldn’t imagine, I’m chasing my own reflection,” as she points out that kindness trails you wherever you go, adding, “When you’ve been so hurt, you give it back.” As the song concludes, she says, “Hearing the cracking of a metamorphosis is coming to life in the shadows, everyone fights their monsters.”
“Glow” commences a neon fantasy with pinpoints of light shimmering after a cassette tape whirs into life, followed by an ethereally brushing melody and depth below. Hope and power suffuse Lisa Marie Perkins' voice, capturing the reverence and passionate attachment within the lyrics. Feelings of brokenness and loss drift while the steady rhythm adds guidance, bells ringing like optimistic light while the substantial drum beat drives.
As the chorus unfolds, Lisa Marie Perkins carries me along with her mingled strength and affection, a shining profusion of dawn-like bells in the distance. A subtle flow of bells is broken by giant bass before the song ends on the chorus, aspirational brightness permeating every element.
“You pulled me through the static glow, out of the dark I used to know,” as the narrator reflects on being rescued from despair by someone who appeared “like a signal in the endless night.” This person transformed suffering into hope, helping them realize that although they believed they had failed, “you’re the one who carried me.”
Lost beneath a “screen light haze” and surrounded by “glass reflections in the space,” the storyteller was consumed by isolation. A “heavy shadow pulled me under” while “heavy silence stole my thunder,” leaving them trapped beneath the weight of doubt and exhaustion.
Everything changed when “your voice broke through the wire,” gentle yet powerful, “soft as smoke, sharp as fire.” Amid the wreckage, the song subject offered guidance and reassurance, saying, “Hold on, I’ll lead the way,” becoming a beacon in the darkness.
“Bleeding skies were closing in” and fragile heartbeats grew “paper thin,” as a helping hand reached across the distance. A chorus of encouragement urged them to “feel resistance,” and with every step forward, “every chain began to break” and “every ghost began to fade.”
Even as darkness lingered around them, the narrator held tightly to the words that carried them through: “Into the dark I heard you say, don’t drift away.”
Floating like transdimensional iridescence, refracted notes spread outward with fragility to bring “Portals” to life in a smooth sonic wash. Melodically gliding sounds join hushed drums which provide silicon guidance to the words carried on Lisa Marie Perkins' affectionate vocals, seizing me with their loving expression as they drift in easygoing lines like summer-breeze ripples.
Accelerating into a technologically twisted soundscape, pounding beats underlay an image of computerized motion, painting pictures of a world of prismatic portals. Sailing out in a velvet pattern, gossamer notes touch with restrained elegance while the foundational pulse presses on. Above, tones twirl with gentleness and soft delicacy, while below them sharper notes slice cleanly. The melody spreads tranquility and gentleness before a guitar solo from Diamond Ace generates excitement and a feeling of gravity-free flight as the notes spin, taking the track to a close.
Like the barest tickle of a breeze on a still day, “Dazzling Glaring” glitters into life with utter serenity, suffusing me with peaceful sensations. Melodic notes wander into vast space with hurting tenderness, supported by swinging rhythmic pulses and depth that spreads like waves beneath. That feeling of lightness permeates me, a lightness which is nonetheless full of mournful sensation, before Lisa Marie Perkins' compelling performance enchants with its honey-sweet power.
An impression of descending stars sparkles out while Lisa Marie Perkins seizes all of the mingled aspiration and pain with her classical vocal beauty. A broad swath of noctilucent cloud hovers in the distance while the beat taps its shaping influence. A melody supported by glimmering guitar notes shines on the edge of awareness before the music slowly flows to an end.
“Friends, where is my home?” the narrator asks, searching for belonging in a fractured world while reminding listeners that “home isn’t ever from our reach.” Surrounded by a reality that feels “broken inside,” they continue to seek comfort and peace, calling upon the “winds of peace” despite repeated disappointments and struggles.
Lonely arpeggios echo openly as “Change Your Mind” flickers into life with a desolate feeling, twirling tones beginning to grow in strength while threatening shadows contrast with breathy arpeggios. Drums begin to come in with tapping lightness that grows into propulsion while the jewel-like arpeggios shine.
Defiance and a feeling of danger pierce me through Lisa Marie Perkins' gripping vocal performance, capturing the sense of a cyberpunk city looming around me. A masterful emotional depth fills the vocals while the slowly spinning notes reverberate, and echoing tones continue to trickle above the gigantic mass below them. Surging with coruscating energy, synth gleams while the repetitive guitar pattern transforms into a Diamond Ace solo, full of loneliness and growing blues-like sensation as the vocals slip past before the music closes.
The city around them feels cold and artificial as “neon drips down broken streets.” Walking alone, their “shadow repeats” while “data storms” rage overhead, leaving their world “lost in the dark” and “trapped in chains.” Yet amid the isolation comes a reminder of personal choice and freedom: “You can change your mind, only if you want to.”
Hope arrives unexpectedly when another person enters their life, “a spark in the rain” whose presence brings healing. Through “whispered codes” that “erased the pain,” they help the narrator break free from limitations. Together, “tonight we broke through the frame,” leaving the past behind as they move forward without fear or regret.
The narrator longs to break free from old wounds and lingering regrets. She asks to be shown “the eyes of someone I never knew and I need most,” suggesting a desire to discover a new version of herself.
Although she believes “there's always a road that leads to freedom,” that path has remained frustratingly distant. They “tried for days” and suffered before realizing that “we all fall down sometimes.”
Amid the darkness, the narrator reaches out desperately for someone who seems lost to them, crying, “Can you not hear me calling out your name?” She’s “lost in the night, lost without words,” haunted by remorse and memories of a ghost.
The storyteller feels her thoughts drifting away from “everything we were.” The past begins to unravel as “nano waves unfold and rewind,” symbolizing memories being replayed. She concludes that “this joy is everything I was.”
“Night City” begins in a rush of busy street sounds and an atmosphere of streets full of complicated life, lit by distant fluorescence and neon light while disembodied words flow in a spectral drift. Hushed contemplation of the desolation in the midst of crowds hovers like a mirage above twinkling tones that cast a filigree glow across the soundscape. Like skyscraper lights slowly coming on, higher notes create a soft luminescence that easily wanders past, like a car drifting down a nighttime street.
Pure mood washes through me as the delicate notes weave a musical web. Distant ticking sounds become an organic xylophone moving with variegated timbres and reverberant richness as the drums slip into a beat. Diamond Ace plays a solo that captures all of the disconnection and thought that comes at midnight, carrying out above the urban skyline with graceful sounds before exhaling into silence.
A rapidly rushing xylophone joins sweeping underlayers to evoke a mingled emotional experience and bring “Lost Runner” to full life. Background sounds trickle and a guitar levitates far away as the xylophone echoes with a feeling of gentle ache, while the lead singer catches the hurt and memory of affection moving through the lyrics. Drums keep up a shaping rhythm while the chorus sparkles like distant stars, dreaming of the past and love.
Tugged into the sonic world by the lead singer’s ferociously emotional performance, leaving me in no doubt about the sincerity of her words, I am guided by the beat. A sunset radiance spreads outward with worshipful tension while the chorus rises once more, lifting with hope in the face of hurt. Cruising drums match the accent of the performance, adding another layer of sonic interest.
An atmosphere full of painful recall drifts as Diamond Ace plays a solo that is as brokenhearted and human as the words. His guitar reaches out to create a touching feeling before the song ends on Lisa Marie Perkins’ undeniably earnest performance.
The narrator longs to break free from old wounds and lingering regrets. Searching for renewal, she asks to be shown “the eyes of someone I never knew and I need most,” suggesting a desire to discover a new version of herself.
Although she believes “there's always a road that leads to freedom,” that path has remained out of my reach.” Her journey has been marked by struggle and disappointment as “we tried for days” and suffered before realizing that “we all fall down sometimes.”
The narrator reaches out desperately for someone who seems lost to them, crying, “Can you not hear me calling out your name?” She's “lost in the night, lost without words,” haunted by remorse and a person who has become a ghost.
The storyteller feels her thoughts drifting away from “everything we were.” The past begins to unravel as “nano waves unfold and rewind,” symbolizing memories being replayed and ultimately released. Looking beyond the pain of what once was, they embrace a newfound sense of liberation and self-discovery, She concludes realizing that “this joy is everything I was.”
Conclusion
“light//touch” exudes an enchanting atmosphere that moves from tragedy to hopeful tenderness in a long wash of elegantly intertwining sound. Lisa Marie Perkins, Diamond Ace and Radical Bicep combine their considerable talents to create music of uncommon fragility and touching beauty.
