“A Chasm Here And Now” is the critically acclaimed debut album of Justin Stephens’ (ex-Passion Play) current band Wires & Lights, with which the Berlin based indie-pop/post-punk quartet redeemed everything they announced at earlier live shows and on the Pagan Love Songs Vol. 3 compilation (2014) with an early demo version of “Swimming”. After a successful cd release two years ago, the album will now finally be released on vinyl in a limited edition (300 copies) gatefold double LP, complete with four bonus tracks (one unreleased track and three remixes by Ash Code, The Foreign Resort and Traitrs).

Right from the off, the brilliant opener “Drive” leaves nothing to be desired in terms of thrilling, hymnic danceability. A grandiosely updated “Swimming” sustains the urgent sense of drive unconventionally, before “Anyone”, one of the most gripping and sweeping mid-tempo ballads of recent years, changes down a gear. And that was just the beginning.

Every time you think you’ve grasped the band musically, they immediately prove you wrong with the next track, e.g. with “Dead To Us”, the calmest and most introspective track according to its loss subject, which stands out for a beautiful ending that develops without haste.

If you’re still in any doubt, listen to the conclusion of the album: “Going, Going, Gone” – this masterfully polished gem of a song, with its New Model Army-like bubbling structure, its genetic connection with Passion Play’s “Running On Empty” and its epic deliverance will be a classic for all time that everyone always wants to hear. More