| Partially because of time constraints and partially because I like to hear albums pumped through their large speaker system, I have quickly gotten in the habit of spinning my newly received albums during my allotted playtime at Reckless Records. On Friday morning I slid in Lymbyc System’s debut full-length for Mush Records, Love Your Abuser, and was enjoying their captivating melodious music when a customer asked me what was playing. I excitedly told him, and he remarked how much he was digging it and asked what this particular kind of music is called. When I told him it would pretty easily be categorized as post-rock, he just kind of stared at me with a confused look on his face. I then noticed he had pulled an Incubus album from the shelf and decided it was best to start from the beginning, because hey, we all got to start somewhere so why not share a little knowledge and maybe I will spark a more exploratory music fan. (Actually, I can still remember the day my fellow Audiversitarian Jordan explained to me the very same concept). So I detailed how in the late 80s/early 90s alternative rock took stranglehold of the mainstream, and in reaction a new movement began attempting to counteract the easily definable brand of rock by infusing a large amount of influences like krautrock, jazz, ambient, prog, classical, math rock, avant-garde, dub and IDM into an epic statement of instrumental prowess. I talked about Spiderland and Tortoise and Labradford and how the antithesis of the compact rock of the time was too patiently string it out into complex structures with lyrical melodies, and how it eventually became the norm itself and was also dismissed by a new movement in the early 00s. But sadly after all the explaining and detailing, he wasn’t even able to buy Love Your Abuser, because all we had was the promo copy I was currently spinning and it was not for sale. It is really a shame too, because Lymbyc System is a very promising young voice in the rebounding genre and I would have loved to cast him off on his burgeoning musical voyage with them to lead the way (but don’t worry, we special ordered it for him and his trip is merely delayed, not canceled completely). The core of Lymbyc System is a pair of brothers from Tempe, Arizona, Jared and Michael Bell. Molding their sound since 2001, they have whole-heartily embraced the aforementioned post-rock sound and further infused it with a healthy dose of one of its side products, folktronica. Like most albums in this field, Love Your Abuser is the result of many a rehash with each recording laid down by the Bell brothers, reconfigured and re-recorded and overdubbed, and then re-reconfigured and re-recorded and overdubbed once again, and then re-re-reconfigured… you get the idea. Some of the source material is nearly impossible to decipher listening to the final product, which skips and sweeps and sashays and stutters and swirls in an invigorating blend of soul-sighing melodies and unconventional structures. The groundwork was mostly created with vintage keyboards and wonderfully time-unperfected equipment adding a lovely layer of crunch and crackle to the sugary sweet center. The Bell brothers, talented musicians in their own right, also got a little help from their friends with the similar-minded Dylan Cristy of The Dylan Group and Mice Parade laying down some vibes and Jimmy Lavelle of The Album Leaf, Tristeza and The Black Heart Procession providing his noted forte, which also saves me some time from listing reference points to Lymbyc System’s sound. Really though, the album Love Your Abuser reminds me of the most is the sorely overlooked Easy Pieces from the short-lived Lateduser (featuring Andrew Broder and Martin Dosh) released in 2004 on Merck. Both albums build strikingly moving melodies out of profuse textures and unconventional instrumentation that create nearly tangible atmospheres without meandering on for too long. And that is one of the defining characteristics of Love Your Abuser: quickly making its point and constantly moving to the next thought. It’s a post-rock album that does not muck around too much in slowly drifting ideas, which is a rarity. These songs are rich tapestries of finely interwoven textures that let you discover a new layer with each spin, just like my newly guided friend is going to do when he peels off each layer of post-rock’s history. If he can’t start from the beginning, he may as well start from this excellent summation of ideas that proudly has its roots in such an interesting genre. - Audiversity |
1XLP/Out Of Print