Noctorum - Offer The Light (2006) — Noctorum – Offer The Light (2006)

By 2005, Marty’s trips to Cornwall were extended as he had decided to set up the In Deep Music Archive in the recently vacated room next to Dare’s VIP Lounge studio. This meant we had more time to work on the project and so we took it. We continued the eclectic theme, purposely writing songs that were different to each other and this explains tracks such as Lover’s Head with its dance beat and unnerving lyric in contrast to poignancy of the homage to the bygone years of old fashioned football players in The Striker. The lyrical themes are strong on this album with one of the most appreciated songs being the closing track Hopes And Fears with its romantic portrayal of love in war time amongst the factories of Northern England. An album that enquires into history, Alain Delon is a nostalgic paean to the French film industry of the 60s while Already Dead brutally wrenches the listener into Death Row to witness a murderer’s last hours. It includes another pop gem in Stop Crying Your Eyes Out and a powerful political rock song in Let Me Tell You A Secret. The delicate The Muse addresses creativity. The album cover is a picture taken by Dare at the Tate Gallery in the turbine hall during his visit to the Olafur Eliasson sun installation in 2004. If you look closely you may recognise him. The title, well – Cricket, of course!

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Reviews

“Offer the Light is the second release from Noctorum, Willson-Piper’s collaboration with multi-instrumentalist and producer Dare Mason. An increasingly strong singer, Willson-Piper is also an expressive, literate lyricist. And as any fan of The Church already knows, he’s one helluva guitar player. Noctorum’ s sonic blueprint doesn’t stray too far from The Church’s blend of Velvet Underground menace and the Byrd’s glorious jangle. Let Me Tell You a Secret combines Willson-Piper’s cool vocal with his frenetically expressive guitar work, the latter equal parts Lou Reed squall and My Bloody Valentine wash. Equally fetching is the Beatlesque Stop Cryin’ Your Eyes Out with its Don’t Think Twice (Bob Dylan) lyrical motive. Any fan of The Church or Marty Willson-Piper should be thrilled with Offer the Light. Recorded in 2006, it’s seeing its first comprehensive American release on Second Motion Records.”

(Steve Wilson, KC Free Press)

“Given the prolific nature of The Church in this decade, it comes as something of a surprise that one of its members would have time to release music as part of another band, but that’s just what Marty Willson-Piper has done as the vocal, songwriting half of Noctorum. Along with multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Dare Mason, Willson-Piper has written a rather beautiful ’70s rock album, along the lines of Pink Floyd, but not too far from the band for which he is most famous. Offer the Light is actually the second album from the duo. It starts mellow and gets mellower, lulling us with soft-rock radio hits like the lovely, guitar solo-adorned Alain Delon and the rather beautiful The Guessing Game, culminating with the seven-minute by-a-dying-fire strumalong that is The Muse. The gloomy, sinister Already Dead (which sounds oddly like Monster Magnet for some reason) is particularly striking. For those fans who haven’t been able to get enough of The Church through the band’s hectic recent release schedule, this second helping of Noctorum will absolutely hit the spot. It’s a well-produced, well-performed set from an obvious veteran of the industry. In other words, Offer the Light is everything it should be.”
(Mike Schiller, Pop Matters)

Interview with Nevada’s Alternative Arts ‘Zine Chimpanzee (smellslikechimpanzee.blogspot.com)