| The vague category of instrumental or post rock, as we've known it for the last ten years, has always borrowed from other musical forms yet still followed a course which reveals an identifiable thread. After labels like Thrill Jockey and Touch and Go established instrumental bands with jazz/classical/noise influences (Tortoise, Rachel's, Don Caballero) in the early to mid-90s, the later '90s/early '00s brought about bands which introduced heavy orchestral drama to wordless art rock (think Mogwai and GY!BE). This resulted in the crystalline, melo-dynamic, tailor-made for film score guitar symphonies of bands like Explosions in the Sky and Mono. Over the past few years, this dramatic and evocative songcraft has become more lush and less linear, evolving into the electro-soundscapes of the Octopus Project and From Monument to Masses, who've taken plenty inspiration from electronic artists like Four Tet and Caribou/Manitoba. Lymbyc System are part of this most recent wave, favoring complex, at times electronically-enhanced drumbeats over the usual time-keeping subservience of bands like Mogwai and Mono and straying from the narrative-driven themes on which those guitar-oriented bands thrive. Yet, the album still displays the melodious inclinations of such bands, only here the synthesizers and pre-recorded sections take the mainstage; the band is made up of two people but multiple samplers and drum machines almost overfill the space. To make things even more interesting, their new offering Love Your Abuser has been released by Mush Records (cLOUDDEAD, Her Space Holiday), a label known for hip-hop artists with an experimental bent (or vice versa). Lymbyc System's vintage effects processors and chopped up sound make this a logical partnership. While Love Your Abuser may not particularly appeal to hip-hop fans, it shows the poorly named yet inevitably categorizable genre of post rock further exploring lo-fi electronica while retaining the cinematic grandeur of earlier incarnations. The booming, hip-hop-inflected drums are perhaps what most define Love Your Abuser. At times, Lymbyc System seem to be trying to approximate a heady mixture of jazz and minimalistic drones being blasted through blown speakers, and for the most part it works. The gentle electric piano in "Idle Wires" brings to mind a Tangerine Dream-scored sequence in an early 80's Michael Mann film until the jazz solo drums rumble the song into dissolution. Luckily, the Lymbyc System are able to utilize percussion as a momentum builder/sustainer rather than simply abstract artifice or bombastic beats. "Birds" rocksteady beat carries the winding synths while alternately breaking them down in cymbal crashing fuzz-outs. Speaking of breakdowns, the hand-clapping and sparse snare rolls, which segue "Astrology Days" into its trumpet fueled second half, are simply sublime. Appropriately, the drums, rather than guitars, bring the song to its sped-up climax. While the album benefits from its formlessness and its simultaneously hyperactive and tranquil nature, it often suffers from incoherence. While dull moments in Love Your Abuser are rare, continuity and memorable melodies are nearly as scarce. Lymbyc System perhaps throw too much into the mix, and the amount of instrumentation (guitar, glockenspiel, synthesizers, woodwinds, etc.) combined with the lo-fi, overdriven sound quality can leave you feeling a little lost and overwhelmed. The title track in particular sounds a little like Sigur Ros recorded on a Radio Shack microphone, but maybe that was the Lymbyc System's intention: taking the predictable, crescendo-addicted modus operandi of dramatic instrumental rock and infusing it with the chaotic static of modern, garage-produced electronic music. And they definitely succeed at that. - Urban Pollution |
1XLP/Out Of Print