Lightspeed Champion

Lightspeed Champion

21 July, 2008
by: Marcus

Cast your minds back, if you will, to a time before nu rave. When retro high-tops and neon hoodies weren't the staple merchandise of every high street clothes shop and Hoxton wasn't the centre of the world. It was into this drab wasteland that the triple-headed screamo-metal hydra of Test Icicles emerged, wailing about blood and needing more poison. In one fell swoop, London was cleared of its Libertines hangover and the rest of the indie world swiftly kicked up the arse and back to the drawing board.

But now the bubble has burst, and the day-glo lost some of its shine as the Mercury Music Prize has bastardised this once proudly alternative movement. 'Klaxons are Kunts' proclaims at least one t-shirt here tonight, the attentions of the Shoreditch cognoscenti have turned towards new exponents of bleepy goodness, and the only K-word muttered is during illicit dealings in club toilets.

To make matters worse, Lightspeed Champion's Devonte Hynes, spiritual leader of the cool brigade ever since the Icicles thawed, has admitted that it was all just a bit of a joke. These days he's happiest with a semi-acoustic rather than a battered pink Telecaster and plank of effects pedals. If his radical about-turn towards fiddle-assisted, countrified indie-folk is a belated attack against the glowstick-waving child he unwittingly spawned, then a backlash has never sounded so sweet.

From the artist formerly known as Dev Metal, there emerges a soulful, balladic croon, and a knack with an expertly crafted melody that usurps his head-to-toe Spiderman costume as the most intriguing thing happening on stage. He manages to replace the faux melodrama of The Strokes' 'Heart in a Cage' with a sinister brooding energy, his own 'Galaxy of the Lost' positively floats along in a stream of its own timelessness, equal parts sea shanty, lullaby and fucking excellent pop tune.

Like Nero to the nu ravers, Dev is happy to fiddle (or at least strum while ex-Hope of the States man Mike works the bow) while the neon palaces he helped to build crash and burn. In 'Midnight Surprise' he has a triumphant, ten-minute ace up his sleeve soon to be deployed, and one that deserves to blow all of the Casio-bashing pretenders out of the water. At this rate we'll all be delirious with nu-folk fever and wearing superhero outfits within a year.

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Marcus