This Cut & Paste Collective member band has two discs out currently: Midnight is Where the Day Begins (recorded in 1999), and Dulcet Little Love (recorded in 2000). The latter is an experiment with layers and progressive melodies, done by someone who knows the rules of good song writing enough to validate his calculated transgressions of them – making for a delightfully and symbiotically garish / entrancing collection of songs. Most of them are based on a foundation of morose voice and subtle guitar strumming, but come to life with aggressive bass lines, violent drum beats, creepy keyboards, and a wide assortment of minor and major effects and 'sounds.' The quality of production is the greatest achievement, though – the thing that pushes each song beyond four-tracks and closets. Every layer asserts itself, but never to the detriment of the others, and the space in between them is filled with a snowy airiness that acts as a sonic glue. Experimental music, or art-rock, gets a bum rap by cultural proxy, but the sensitivity and boldness with which Lackthereof approaches its music could go a long way (at least as far as Kid A, if not farther on some levels) in bridging at least some of the divide between the avant-garde and the social malaise. Ears hungry for something different, bold, challenging, edifying, highly intelligent yet accessible, and completely respectable will want to find these discs immediately.
