Labradford – Fixed :: Context

If we assume that post-rock is more than a critic’s concept and that bands and artists actually aspire to achieve this state with their music, then Labradford‘s latest, Fixed :: Context, might just have achieved the purest definition.

Sonic bloops open the album with one of four tracks, this one a mere 18 minutes long and utterly peaceful, like Aphex Twin or Pete Namlook enjoying a snooze. Slowly, solitary notes on old keyboards are layered over the bloops, which in themselves pass for a rhythm replacement.

The rest of the album is no less quiet, with Up To Pizmo sounding like the Theme From Twin Peaks, played by morose vibrato-enhanced guitars and bringing to mind the most reflective moments of Bill Callaghan’s Smog. It even manages to include an almost-beat which sounds almost exactly like the approach of the Monster From The ID in Forbidden Planet.

David has more of a similar vein with regard to guitars, developing via cosmic chords on keyboard to a state of utopia; a theme piece that would have been happy as backing music for 2001 had Johann Strauss not gotten in on the act.

A refreshing alternative to the mind-numbing 4/4 beats of most modern indie music, Labradford have been plying their trade for almost ten years and are now an accomplished band purveying some of the most challenging music around. Fixed :: Context deserves to do well.