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Album Review
by saschas
26-1-2005
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| LCD Soundsystem: punk-funk for fun life |
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LCD Soundsystem: 'LCD Soundsystem'
(DFA/EMI)
LCD Soundsystem - double doze of X-large funkers
One of the first hugely entertaining albums of the year - LCD Soundsystem’s eponymous debut - appears capable of succeeding where others have come short… Revving up the punk-funk sound of the early Eighties is a popular sport at the moment, although New York City enthusiasts the Rapture, Radio 4 and !!! have not translated hipster buzz into major sales.
LCD Soundsystem could be the one to succeed; dance floors have already been shaken by, one half of the infamous New York production duo/label DFA, James Murphy’s bitter, hilarious ‘Losing My Edge’, the thunderous acid house of ‘Yeah’ and the raucous party anthem ‘Daft Punk Is Playing at My House’, all three included here.
The album is impressively broad in scope, brave and curious explorations of styles and genres. You can recall Talking Heads, Prince, Gang of Four, Beck or any of the ‘retro-futuristic’ combos but this is not derivative in any way, it simply speaks and corresponds to the spirit of the times. And - how!
Spread across two discs, the first features nine new tracks, from the frenzied/hypnotic punk blast of recent single ‘Movement’ to the blissful closer ‘Great Release’. Between it and the opener ‘Daft Punk’ nestles an array of styles that may disturb contemporary-trained consumers: there is psychedelic drama of ‘Never as Tired as When I’m Waking Up’ [The Beatles’ ‘White Album’ wouldn’t be an alien home to it], catchy electro build-up of ‘On Repeat’, the ‘annoyingly’ effected ‘Thrills’ or the stomping Sly Stone-cum-Krautanzer ‘Disco Infiltrator’.
The second disc contains 'Losing My Edge', 'Beat Connection', 'Give It Up', 'Tired', 'Yeah' (Crass & Pretentious versions) together on CD for the first time plus the newly added full length version of 'Yr City's A Sucker' - the latest recorded offering from Murphy which featured as a b-side to ‘Movement’, but is so good it has been added to the disc. It is a natural closer to the second CD and the album as a whole, resplendent with its “HaHaHaHa” refrain- a natural sardonic successor to the epic tracks it follows.
Murphy’s enjoyably untrained vocals - often sounding like a more melodic The Fall-guy, Mark E. Smith - are regularly used to great effect to assist in opening vistas to fresh imagination… As J-man explains, "LCD is like a laboratory for experiments on what a band should be."
You've gotten it, bro. In capacious quality.
9/10
~
Tour dates:
11 February - tba, Brighton
13 February - tba, Leeds
14 February - Astoria, London
15 February - Hop & Grape, Manchester
16 February - TV, Paris
17 February - La Maroquinerie, Paris
18 February - Gebaude, Cologne
19 February - Magnet, Berlin
20 February - Molotow, Hambourg
24 February - Quattro, Osaka
25 February - Quattro, Nagoya
26 February - East, Tokyo
22-26 March - Winter Music Conference, Miami
saschas
24-1-2005
LCD Soundsystem's album ‘LCD Soundsystem' is released 24 January 2005 by DFA/EMI
LC Soundsystem’s single 'Daft Punk Is Playing At My House' is released 21 February 2005
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