With getting on for forty people lined up to play covering trumpets, trombones and horns as well as reeds, viola, percussion and keyboards, their first album, The New Atomic, is a wild and unpredictable ride taking in big band swing, soundtrack tension, bluesy stomps, funky soul stylings and even torch song jazz.
album review
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The last forty years seem to have treated the members of the Loft well and with their musical history put through a prism of those years, the quality of the song-writing and playing shines through. Two albums in twelve months is good going and by the strength of this there will be more to come.
I knew I’d love this even before listening and when played its bleached-out summery disposition wove quite a spell, blistered with unexpected alt-pop moments that ear-wormed in the there and remained. So glad to see this back in print coupled with its reworked cousin
They wish to bring these classic folk forms into the twenty-first century and although there is still something ancient in the tone, there is enough modern inspiration and desire for deconstruction to make Vindespel resonate with today’s listener.
...plasticised blurs affixed to a melodic underling. Enveloped and overlapping textures feed in some nice weirded-out drone candy, slamming to full-on rock-out surprise before getting softly celestial. Intriguing shapes stippled and percussively bubbled, fluxing in hissy transits and snake-charmed loops.
...Both sides show the band working well but in different ways and the more you play, the more you discover... with five members bringing ideas and two vocalists with contrasting approaches, you know the outcome will be diverse.
...they have constructed four pieces over two volumes that use rhythmic repetition and respectful interplay to propel the listener into previously unconsidered realms. With trumpeter Ellen Kirkwood and sax man Matt Otignon as well as incisive drummer Evan Mannell, these extended improvisatory journeys are a breathtaking discovery.
... it’s hard to advise against grabbing all three of these quite limited Brown Spirits reissues in one go. Whilst your bank account and storage space might not thank you in the moment, your ears will do long into the future.
...the perfect encapsulation of their ability to wrap the elements of boredom and frustration in a fizzy coating that makes the truth easier to swallow. The whole album can be taken in one sitting and then played again straight away while other bands are still lumbering to a conclusion. Power Of Now is well worth the effort.
...an agricultural dystopia with drones derived from snoring livestock and battered tractors to create an otherworldly sonic texture suggesting sleeping horrors to be awakened.
Recorded at the Church Of The Immaculate Conception in Budapest, this suite of pieces fuses circular breathing techniques, intense rhythmic attack and percussive textures into a whole that flickers across light and dark as if watching a projector film of seabirds at play.
...hiccuping hypnotics and slivering interchange shot through with darkened instabilities. A heady otherness The Stargazer’s Assistant have been worshipping from the get-go, imbued with ghostly burrs and vocalising vapour, spidering into a noisy abstractive rub.
lulling you into calmer waters after the frantic pace of the preceding tracks. Once again Let Spin show how much life there is in this post-jazz world, twisting the vaguely familiar into new and compelling shapes.
Between them they bring a wealth of experience in the free improv scene, but the first effort for this line-up is a forty-six minute journey through relationships that go beyond the professional and somehow manifest into something magical.
These pieces are meant for immersive listening rather than dancing; Saggar calls them prayers, tying their purpose into the meaning of "bhajan", the Sanskrit term for a devotional song. More spiritual practice than entertainment, it’s only right that the album is listened to and judged as such.
...an album that sees the light after thirty years and not before time, Kenny perhaps at the peak of his later and smoother era, playing with friends and concocting a session that is well remembered by all those involved.
Everything about this nineteen-minute selection is indeed just a joy — from the neat inviting 10” vinyl presentation right down to the deep hooks embedded in its actual grooves.
...like other ‘noise’ rock bands but also strangely unlike most of them in that, even at this early stage, it felt like every note was deliberate. If it sounded like an unGodly accident then that was exactly how it was supposed to sound. These freaks could play; there might even be some kind of score.