Labradford strains spaced rock through an industrial fuel filter and the results are a low, groaning, melodic album that disorients with its effortless transitions from sinister synth loops to opium pop. Slow-building to the point of lethargy, this is best explored in a pensive state. Excuse me while I smoke. --K.S.

(first appeared in Reign of Toads #4)

"Open URL", "Insectoidal Regression", "Transfer Complete"--Thaemlitz posted to the ambient emailing list that, yes indeed, he came up with the names for these songs. He thought his literal Internet-inspired titles would fuse well with Laswell's more mystical interpretation of the words. All theory aside, this CD is awesome: a low, ominous field of analog waveforms that envelops and pulls you down into the riptide. There are no beats, no ravey aspects, just a percolating snarl of sound. One of the most outstanding releases of this new "ambient" movement. --S.A./K.S.

(first appeared in Reign of Toads #4)

On the CD sleeve, it sez "The Mike Gunn Presents", which shows you where these comedy rockers hail from, both aesthetically and geographically. Sort of. In fact, while LPQ guitar god R. Medina is rumored to have written some key cuts offen the first Gunn LP back in the days, the Black Sabbath bliss angle that plays so well in the Texas heat (quite evident in strung-out stoner anthems like "Friendswood Development Co." and "Larry's Song") is offset by goofy pop songs ("Hamburger Girl", "Astral Toads") and semi-frontman Clinton Heider's dumb-hick vocal athletics. If the Mike Gunn traded in their macho for a big rubber chicken, they might end up like Linus Pauling and his band of merry men. Schizophrenically attractive. --K.S.

(first appeared in Reign of Toads #4)

(I play with these guys when I get the chance, and they're pals of mine, so I can disavow any impartiality you might construe. On the other hand, no one is paying me or telling me what to say...)

The LOH emerged from a 1989 improv workshop in Questa, NM (where the band is still based), and is basically a collision of Front Range Improv Orchestra--a free jazz outfit from Boulder--and the Whitefronts--a mid-80s San Francisco punk improv band.

They now play folk songs, but the improv vibe is still integral. They rarely use set lists, never rehearse, and overdubs consist of pushing the record button and playing until the tape runs out. Live songs often run over 15 minutes. The result is a raw, tentatively-woven whole that gets under your skin.

How You See Light is the fifth of six self-released cassettes the LOH have produced, and along with Long Dry Spell it's their most haunting and organic recording to date. Ranging from odd and sweet ballads to droney and hypnotic vignettes to all-out sonic breakdown, the music is somehow simultaneously urgent and aloof. Lyrically the songs are as strong as ever, sometimes approaching both the ambience and directness of Sufi poetry and the vitriol of the black humorists.

Lords of Howling Cassette-ography:



• LOH 01 Aloha Bro 60 min
• LOH 02 Dozin' 60 min
• LOH 03 Whoa 60 min
• LOH 04 Seeing the Elephant 60 min
• LOH 05 How You See Light 96 min
• LOH 06 Long Dry Spell 96 min

(review date: 12/31/95)

last update 1/17/97

Reign of Toads PO Box 40498 Albuquerque NM 87196-0498 USA
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