Le Loup – February 21st in Crawdaddy

Once again the gig diary is starting to fill up. My boys and gals- Los Campesinos! – are playing tonight in The Village. What a weird night Saturday was, you really had to be there. It was a surreal moment watching Louis Walsh sing their new single back to them after their performance on Tubridy Tonight. Watch out for the next issue of NME – they were there to capture the whole thing – all will be revealed I imagine.

 

I’m gonna try and take it easy for the next few weeks, but one thing I won’t be missing is Le Loup’s first Dublin show, on February 21st in Crawdaddy. I’ve posted about them a few times before, as their debut album was one of my favourites last year. Still no sign of a video for any singles, but there’s a link here to their myspace. They don’t have Planes Like Vultures up there – arguably the best track on the album – but you can check it out here, on the Instrumental Analysis blog. I forgot to post this at the time, so below is my TD review of their album from a few months back.

Le Loup – The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly (Memphis Industries).

In the short period of time since this anonymous little record landed on my desk, a lot has been said about Le Loup. This seven piece from D.C. originally numbered only one – Sam Simkoff wrote and recorded all of The Throne with methodical precision, after relocating from Portland. Also, much has been made of the title and the subject matter – all those allusions to Dante’s Inferno and artist James Hampton. But it’s too easy to search for clues here, or make tenuous assumptions based on these factors and insignificant talking points. The only relevant question is whether The Throne is any good. It is good, very good in fact, and one of the finest debuts of 2007. Opener Canto I bristles with multiple layers of looping banjo and a cacophony of tin pot percussion, all bound together by spoken word samples. Planes Like Vultures (undoubtedly one of the songs of the year) typifies Simkoff’s unique approach to song writing and arrangement, albeit straight from the ‘one man in his bedroom’ school of composition. Loops of Simkoff’s vocal build and layer intricately, joined by a quirky beat that evolves and propels the song towards the dramatic introduction of major chords. This song, and most of the album is clearly the work and vision of one man (constructed almost like a techno track). In fact, I would wager that The Throne could not have been written by a group of musicians. This is a good thing, as the limiting factors that Simkoff faced whilst writing and recording this album inevitably shaped its unique nature. Comparisons with Sufjan Stevens are inevitable and unavoidable I suppose because of his voice, the banjos, and pianos, but Simkoff’s sound is more contemporary- blending synths, vocal effects, and drum machines with more traditional instrumentation to beautiful effect. The Throne is conclusive proof of the abundant talent and potential of Simkoff and Co.

Current Mood: Restless.

Current Listening: Casiotone For The Painfully Alone – Etiquette (Tomlab).

 

 

 

Before I was so rudely interrupted

So here I am, trying to catch up on some blogging (especially my irrelevant rant on the state of live music in Ireland), when all of a sudden I’m interrupted by a new album that arrived to my door yesterday.

Ladies and gentlemen, hold off on those end of year album polls, we may have a late contender. I don’t know too much about them yet, but I’m on my third listen already today of the new Le Loup album, The Throne Of The Third Heaven Of The Nations’ Millenium General Assembly, and it sounds really great. I don’t want to jinx it, but it sounds a little bit like Sufjan crossed with a hint of Maps, but in a good way. The singer’s voice is quite similar, and the trademark banjo features heavily. There are some great electronic bits too, lots of bleeps, squelches, soft synths, and vocoders. That’ll do me!

Here’s a link to an mp3 of what I think is the best song on the album, as it’s not on their myspace.

Let’s see if I still feel the same way next month. Anyway, back to moaning about gigs….