|
March 2000. I was working in the mailroom at a pharmacuetical advertising agency in
Chicago's Loop with some of the most dull people alive. After
five months of getting into my routine, the Technology Department hired someone who actually listened to music. Finally, someone I could talk to, Gary.
Gary had to be 10 years my senior and looked like a mix of Frankenstein’s monster and Johnny Cash, which fit his musical tastes – as he was always trying to push the Cramps, Monster Magnet, and Xray Specs my way. He used to call his musical style Rockabilly for the undead, though he did love the Stray Cats as well. I never said the two of us had a lot in common, but he was passionate about his music, which is why the two of us got along every afternoon down in the lunchroom.
One day Gary noticed the collection I had brought to work had an all-girl theme. Luscious Jackson, the Controls and Portishead were the choices for the day. Gary took the Portishead back to his work area to give it a listen.
By the end of the day he had come back with a burned CD for me to keep by a band called Laika. I had never heard of this band, but he assured me I would like it. I had never gotten into Monster Magnet, but Gary was correct with Laika. Thanks Gary.
Borrowing the name of the first dog in Space, Laika comes to us from the UK with some of the most advanced and electronic moody trip-hop around. Consisting of a male and female duo surrounded by all sorts of computers and samplers, these two get inside your head and lay down a foundation of atmospheric soundscapes upon which
gorgeous, breathy vocals will haunt you.
These two aren’t afraid to force you to put your dancing shoes on either. They will shake you. I like to classify it as nighttime music. It certainly isn’t sunny day music. This is dusk/no need to go out tonight- music. Though at times it does play out like the soundtrack to the next Michael Douglas sexual thriller movie, it’s enjoyable… in a Sade-with-street-credit sort of way.
I do have to say the style in which the songs are performed have not changed much through the course of their albums, but that is because they have their own style. They bring a fuller, rounded out feeling to the trip-hop genre.
The full band of Laika (with a live drummer and bassist) opened for Radiohead on the Southern European tour in 2000. Apparently Mr. Thom Yorke is a big fan. With acceptance from a man who seems to hate everything, can they be that bad? I’ll tell you, they are not bad, not bad at all.
Reviewed by Bob Ladewig
|
|
Laika’s press release says that the term post-rock was coined for them. This has never been a fair way to label a band, but the term works better for them then it does for
Tortoise, 5ive Style, etc. All the familiar elements are here; the turntable, sporadic wind instruments, driving bass and drums, jazz and rock fusion, but Laika has more dance elements and sound distinctly English in their origins than the other post-rock bands, sort of what I thought of when I heard the term post-rock for the first time.
The music on Good Looking Blues is, for the most part, inventive and very compelling. Laika uses different wind instruments throughout
the album to great effect. Not many of these post-rock bands are using flutes and clarinets, so the sound of this album doesn’t sound derivative or tired. Listen to the flute and clarinet churn in and out of the mix on the title track to create the perfect mix of avant guard jazz, a sample and an energetic rhythm. The song “Widow’s Weeds” comes to a close with a surprise drum beat that keeps driving through a Ornette Coleman-like spiral of a trumpet, flute and clarinet. The album floats along on the merits of this mix between electronic and standard instruments.
The main problem with the album is the vocals. Apparently Laika have had the chance to open for Radiohead in the past. This is probably the highest compliment a band could receive at the moment, but don’t be fooled. Laika is very different from Radiohead. In many songs, Margeret Fiedler’s vocal are the very opposite of Thom Yorke’s. While Yorke often adds to a Radiohead song, using his vocals as an additional instrument taking a very good song and making it a great song, Fiedler’s breathy vocals often take away from what is otherwise very good music. Her vocals are speaky, deep and sound as if she is trying to lend an unnecessary element of darkness. More often then not it does not work and it almost completely ruins songs such as “Uneasy” and “Widow’s Weed”, which this reviewer wishes were kept instrumental. My girlfriend thinks that she sounds like Poe on these songs, which I don’t believe to be a compliment although I have never heard Poe. The lowest point of the album
- and Fiedler's singing - comes with “Badtimes”. The song does not fit on the album and should have been left off, maybe as a less than charming B-side. The lyrics are taken from an anonymous email received by one of the band members. It comes a across in vocal delivery as bad beat poetry for the 21st Century, with the background music sounding as if it was thrown together at the last minute, quite different than the rest of the album.
In fairness to Fiedler and the band, during the songs where she resists the urge to pseudo rap and actually sings, the result is very acceptable. In “T-street” and “Glory Clouds” it sounds like she actually wants to sing (her voice is very good when she sings, very sublime and shimmering) and her vocals help create a dream like dance vibe. The vocals on “Lie-low” and “A Single Word” are completely beautiful and create the perfect finish to this otherwise flawed vocal performance. The most confusing song on the album is “Go Fish”, in which she uses the slow, breathy vocals and the good “I can really sing” vocals together at the same time. Listen to this song and tell me you wouldn’t have preferred the version of the song where Fiedler just lets loose and sings. In fact I would preferred that version of the
album.
Reviewed by John Steinbacher
|
