From Kelsey M. Damas Sent Thu, Jan 1st 1998, 01:40
From Kelsey M. Damas Sent Thu, Jan 1st 1998, 01:40
Laika/almost sleeping (too pure)
4 tracks:
1.almost sleeping (edit)
2.prairie dog (remix by maxwell house)
3.shut off/curl up (remix by cabbage boy)
4.breather (remix by luke vibert)
This is my first taste of Laika, as I don't normally buy trip-hop. I live
in the sticks where music that doesn't make it to billboard's top 40 or
whatever doesn't have a good chance of being on the shelves, so after
wading through stacks of unappealing stuff this looked good enough to take
home.
Track one: uptempo-but-not-fast-synthdrums that recycle the same beat
almost the whole way through (it's got a groove though) and breathy female
vocals singing about loneliness and the like. My favorite part was the
bridge (?) section in between the two verses. Maybe this was because there
was no singing, or maybe it was because the beat got played with a little
providing variety and a neato acid-like synth thing got added. Overall,
very warm harmonically, and despite what it sounds like, I actually liked
the vocals. The studio fade-out thing at the end was pretty lame, though
(I guess this would be the "edit" part, eh).
Track two: slower, laid back feel. Sweeping bass line, clumsy drums, jazzy
distorted keyboard. Lyrics reminded me of NIN a little bit: "if i could
pull the nerves from my skin I would." Brought back memories of my angst
ridden youth :) I think this is the least interesting track here. Remixed
by Maxwell House, but it must of been decaf because i'm falling asleep.
Track three: Starts out pretty good with a bit of noisy ambience akin to
Speedy J "public energy" drums straight out of 'as the bubble expands', but
then the pounding bass comes in (and the ambience stops) and is unrelenting
for the rest of the track. Reminded me to much of a bass-heavy car stereo
to get into this track too much. Much more variety musically than the
previous track, and the vocals don't dominate so much. If it weren't for
the boom-boom bass I'd like it a lot more.
Track four: starts with layering percussion: bongos, snare, that one hand
drum thing that the singer of the who is always shaking...to a nice melodic
bass line, and near unintelligible vocals. bleepy drum stuff, good beats,
playful synth, and excellent rythmic activity that just reeks of luke
vibert. My only complaint is that it was predictably 'song structured'
(verse, chorus, verse, bridge, whatever) and it was a bit short.
Overall: Since I live in the sticks, and this was imported, it was
overpriced at 10 bucks american. I don't think that this was good enough
(or suited my tastes enough) for me to rush out and buy more Laika, but I'm
glad I bought something new (new as in I had never heard Laika and don't
have any trip-hop). I'm sorry I can't compare it to anything else in the
genre, and it's just my humble opinion, so take it for what it's worth.
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L
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