The Luyas – Animator

It feels as if it’s being informed on another level at times, and that gives this recording a sort of unique space, one you can get sucked into.

It feels as if it’s being informed on another level at times, and that gives this recording a sort of unique space, one you can get sucked into.

http://www.deadoceans.com http://www.konkurrent.nl

Normally I don’t really take on board what press releases say, preferring to just get on and listen to a record, but in this case I feel it’s important to relate that the new LP by The Luyas is shaped in places by the death of someone close to the band. Because of this there is a very noticeable remove to a lot of the music. It feels as if it’s being informed on another level at times, and that gives this recording a sort of unique space, one you can get sucked into. The opener Montuno is a strange, sandy-eyed reflection on all sorts of matters mortal, on our brief time hanging about in this floating world. You get this otherworldly feel on The Quiet Way, the last track the (literally) spooky Channeling, and the brilliant “slowie”, Talking Mountains. It certainly adds an edge to the whole listening experience.

I hope that I don’t put you on the defensive with such thoughts, as this is a charming album, at times a transcendental one. And, to slip into common utterance for a second, there are some boss tunes, la. One of which is the brisk, tuneful Fifty/Fifty, which bounces pneumatically along. Face is a stunner too; a mix of determined beat and woozy string samples that somehow enmeshes into a beautiful pop song. The vocal’s faerie edge helps a lot here, as it does on Your Name’s Mostly Water, another track that vaults effortlessly between being a clever pop song and some sort of ethereal show tune. Traces is yet another pearl, a great mass of changes and contradictions, it took me ages to get my head round the melody, such as it is; you note the vocals holding the track by its tail as it slides this way and that.

So a funny old listen, but one you should stick with. It’s a really good LP.