Labradford - fixed::context
(Kranky)
Labradford's new album fixed::context is an extraordinarily difficult record to review because my silly descriptions of what I hear do very
little to actually convey the experience of listening to this music. It's a very simple, very stripped down
album, yet it's intoxicating in its ability to wrap itself around you and draw you in. I'm not the biggest
Labradford fan in the world, I only have Mi Media Naranja besides this one, though I have heard a
couple of their early records. Fixed::context shows a fairly equal balance between the guitars and the electronics, in that
most of the sounds you hear seem to have been electronically generated, yet it is the guitars that really
drive the songs (what slow drive they have).
"Twenty" (perhaps less a title and more a time code, as this one clocks in at over 18 minutes) starts
with distant warbles and electronic blips, like Pole being broadcast from outer space. There are deep bass
pulses and keyboard hums. At about four-and-a-half minutes, a guitar floats in. First it plays four notes
and repeats. Then six. The song slowly shifts, sounds are slowly phased in, others out. It's hypnotic and
a truly incredible piece of music.
The remainder of the record is made up of three songs which roughly together equal the first in length.
"Up to Pizmo" is built on a beautiful melody of two intertwined guitars, each panned to separate channels.
"David" is a series of progressively ascending keyboard washes around which the guitars (again panned)
rotate; about halfway through, the keyboards and one of the guitars drop out, leaving the one guitar alone
to be overcome by a slowly creeping hiss (I like this song particularly because it is about me). I am not
going to describe "Wien" to you, that will be a surprise for when you buy the record.
Labradford demonstrates an expert sense of space and sound--it is astonishing that they can carry the
listener so far on so little. This is the first time I have heard music this minimal that made me just sit and
listen, lost in its purity and perfection. My experience has been that it cannot be played simply as
background music, it will absorb your attention, focusing your mind on itself and on itself alone.
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