Articles
2007 Ten Favourite Labels
Backtracking Greg Davis
Shackleton Interview

Albums
John Luther Adams
Joseph Auer
Commix
Dartriix
Floratone
Furniture
Shuta Hasunuma
Richard Hawley
Hologram
Icarus
Kiln
Kobol
Labradford
Last Days
M83
Mai
Darren McClure
Near the Parenthesis
David Newlyn
Objekt4
OK Ikumi
Ontayso
Wendel Patrick
Phon°noir
Pocahaunted / Robedoor
Poostosh
Prefuse 73
Quosp
Rapoon
The Retail Sectors
Skull Disco
Socos
Supersilent
Tigrics
Trentemøller
Zuydervelt / Baars / Veld.

Compilations/Mixes
Airport Symphony
Devil in the Detail
Dinky
EXPANSION | contraction
Funckarma
Little Darla v. 25
One Five Zero
Playgroup / Alter Ego
Signal Path
Soul Jazz Singles
U-cover Mix 03 [IDM]
Ricardo Villalobos
We Are All Cotton-Hearted
Well Deep

3"/ 7"/ 10"/ 12"/ EPs
Basic Unit
Bodycode
Kit Clayton & Sutekh
Dartriix
Ditch
INKlings
Insanic4
Lackluster
Najem Sworb
Ontayso
Sutekh
The Tamborines
Telafonica
Zainetica

Labradford: Prazision LP
kranky

Originally issued in 1993, Labradford's Prazision holds the distinction of being kranky's premiere release. The Chicago-based label has decided to re-issue the recording in a newly re-mastered, 70-minute form that now includes “Preserve the Sound Outside,” the B-side to the group's first single, “Everlast,” which was itself a bonus on the original release. Labradford's sound was distinctive from the outset: eschewing beats altogether, Carter Brown and Mark Nelson merged blurry waves of electric guitar fuzz and keyboards with whispered vocals in a lo-fi manner different from anything that had come before. It's also interesting to revisit the album in light of the recent upsurge in psychedelic folk; certainly haunted settings like “Splash Down” convincingly argue for Labradford as a prescient forerunner of the genre.

Prazision finds Labradford in rawer and, obviously, embryonic form, a much different group than the one that would appear on 1996's Labradford and its sequels, the understated and refined Mi Media Naranja and E luxo so. In time, Brown and Nelson would be joined by bassist Bobby Donne and would augment its sound with strings, Fender Rhodes, slide guitar, dulcimer, and samples, but the essence of the group is already in place on Prazision, especially on songs like “C. of People,” where whispered vocals drift through a blurry field of organ and guitars, and “Listening in Depth,” where phantom tones stretch over grimy industrial loops. Nelson's vocals exude a disturbing, even slightly menacing, quality in their first appearance (“Accelerating on a Smoother Road ”); far sunnier is “Soft Return” where his whisper is augmented by an enchanting guitar melody and sleigh bells. “Experience the Gated Oscillator,” “Skyward with Motion,” and “Everlast” traffic in a slow-burning, guitar-drenched style that calls to mind German space-rock at its trippiest and that Labradford abandoned in subsequent albums. By contrast, the church-like ambiance of “Disremembering” foreshadows the group's later embrace of a quieter and more meditative style. Throughout Prazision, we hear the duo experimenting, trying out different ideas and sampling future possibilities (e.g., layering a spoken voiceover over burning guitar lines in “Disremembering,” merging Kraftwerk's Radioactivity with church organ in “Gratitude”)—not all of it equally successful but boldly explorative nonetheless.

December 2007