Edward Ka-Spel
"A Long Red Ladder To The
Moon" CD
Beta-lactam Ring Records
Genres: experimental rock
Beta-lactam Ring
POB 6715
Portland, OR
97228-6715
USA
April 2006 |
The Legendary Pink Dots' Edward Ka-Spel brings us
Long Red Ladder To The Moon, an album's worth of offbeat,
industrial-esque yet sometimes jazzy avant-rock stuff;
it's got a
melodic aspect but a far more experimental and atmospheric edge.
There's a dark quality
that runs the course of the disc, provoking a sense of
foreboding evil but
keeping things vague and merely menacing. Some might tag this as
"outsider folk" or "experimental psych folk," but that hardly prepares
you for what you'll pay witness to. At its most accessible (and for a
LPD-associated record, this is very poppy), Ka-Spel
treats us to Cabaret Voltaire-esque electronics mixed with
deadpan vocals ("Mechanical Sam"); other
parts, meanwhile, are less
heavy on the melody ("Black Widow's Kiss," "Never Say Never".) At the
far end, we have the more experimental end of things - "Flipside" and
its noisily desperate rush, the extended soundscape of "Gone
Subterranean (Parts 1 and 2)", the manic and experimental record
highlight "Treehugger"... At its simplest, I still treat this as a
record whose main imperative is to convey a strong sense of
atmosphere. Long Red Ladder is the soundtrack to seeing
mysterious dark figures in the corners of your field of vision, but
having them disappear just as soon as you turn your head.
Sound samples
here.
81%
Matt Shimmer
[Vitals: 8 tracks, distributed by
the label, released 2005] |