| Feel like the stress of modern life is wearing you down? Then why not try Valeen Hope, brought to you exclusively from the Loden Corporation and guaranteed to sooth away those SAD blues. In a rambling and incoherent kind of way we're trying to convey the beatific qualities of this gorgeous new album, combining as it does the precision of Bola or EU, the cloudburst intensity of Sigur Ros or Slowdive and the impression of depth afforded by Ulrich Schnauss. Opening with (In), Loden (aka a Dutch bloke whose name escapes us) conjures an airy and burnished breed of electronica that is peppered by effulgent peaks and shallow troughs. Valeen Hope certainly doesn't contain many surprises, but in its depiction of thawed yet icytronica, Loden has wisely traded sonic invention for innate charm and sunblushed electronic treatise. Manifesting itself as grandstanding synths a-go-go and otherworldly vocals on the tarnished grandeur of "Our Exploding Lives," warm beat fractured acoustica on "Sugar Tea" and the shoegazing buoyancy of the title track, Loden is the electronic equivalent of a much needed sigh. Lovely. - Boomkat |
