There is a war now. The message has been sent through short wave in code. THE BESNARD LAKES twisting chronicle, or fever dream, of spies, double agents, novelists and aspiring rock gods has turned violent. Loyalty, dishonor, love, hatred all seen through the eyes of two spies, fighting a war that may not be real. One follows the other as they receive coded messages and spread destruction.The city is burning, and it's to the benefit of music obsessives everywhere. Once again, the husband-and-wife duo of Olga Goreas and Jace Lasek has crafted a majestic, sprawling vision of guitar bombast and captivating pop experiments. With the aid of Besnard members Kevin Laing on drums and RichardWhite on guitar, "The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night" is a dense, ambitious recording, experimenting, as always, with the studio as instrument. "The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night" calls upon the influence of ELO and finer parts of the ALAN PARSONS PROJECT in its orchestration. Still helped by the Ghost of BEACH BOYS Past, the album is more DennisWilson than Brian, and more Peter Green FLEETWOODMAC than Lindsay Buckingham. The album is a dark bliss-out that folds the eerie guitar epics of the Montreal band's breakthrough into a wall of affected drones and atmospherics, but with a toughened immediacy and grit that gives the form a much-needed shove over the cliffs, making for a haunting, provocative swan dive into the crushing tide.