[.ca] Fixed::Context

From Amazon.com:
Ah, Labradford: their reputation recedes them. Since their inception in Richmond, Virginia, in the early 1990s, this studious American trio has faithfully followed their muse into quieter sonic realms, dead set on paring down their hushed drone. The band's sixth album brings them crashing back to earth. Where its predecessor, 1999's E Luxo So, explored spaced-out cosmic dub soundscapes, this is the sound of Labradford returning from the outer planes and delving into windswept Americana. The opening, "Twenty," consists of 18 minutes of mournful digi-country: think of the Twin Peaks theme played while sitting in a rocking chair. The following three tracks bring Fixed::Context to a coma-inducing 37 minutes in length, at which point one is left with a nagging suspicion that nothing's actually happened. Which just indicates that Labradford are nearing a state of conceptual perfection where they're as quiet as they are magnificent. --Louis Pattison

wonderful:
Ever since I met them in Virginia all those years ago, I have been in love with Labradford and the music they make. Their excursions into ambient realms have led to gloriously blissed out lps such as "A Stable Reference," and "E Luxo So." Their newest effort finds our heroes treading new ground, yet doing so their calming, reassuring way. Their cosmic brand of Americana hearkens back the lost days of youth where we could sit and stare at the stars at night and do absolutely nothing otherwise. The sounds of the earth were our companions and we melded with the world around us. Sure, it sounds drippy to an extent to liken Labradford's brand of ambient to such things, but listen to them. Their lp's move wonderfully between the quiet drones of ambience to moments of stillness with the music barely perceptable at all. Much like a summer evening with the occasional cricket chirping to offer music to the landscape of silence. Labradford, as always, succeeds in making their unique brand of ambient music wonderfully satisfying to listen to or to meld with. Another soon to be classic effort by America's foremost masters of ambient music.

very nice:
a wonderful album which maximizes on the beauty of space and sparse guitar riffs. but please enough with the carrot top samples uggh!

Music that you knew in the womb, or earlier...:
It's profound in its sublime simplicity. Like floating in a sonic bath until you get just the right temperature and weightless feeling, your mind starts to drift into that land between waking and sleeping, lids half-shut. You're officially ready to have an AHA moment! (no, not the group, the realization...) It reminds one of Brian Eno circa 1978, only focused more on real instruments. The soundstage could be these three musicians standing about 100 yards apart from each other on a plain in Nebraska, and your mind will feel more open than that after the first 5 minutes of this disc. If you're the type who can sit still for more than that first five minutes and reflect, you're a lock to buy this. Try it, you'll like it!

Killing me softly...:
I always seem to run across David Lynch references when it comes to Labradford, and I guess they're valid...I, however, keep coming back to Michael Mann and his icy-cold, cobalt blue scenes in stark, cautiously decorated white abstract homes containing glass blocks up the wazoo and an ocean view to die for...Labradford create mood music for those who spend their nights contemplating their immediate surroundings...the art on their walls, the person in bed next to them, the way candle light bounces on the ceiling when the candle is placed under an A/C vent...anything, really...Bastard 60's Nashville and surf guitar teamed with brainy electronic blips and waves makes a disturbing and hypnotic team...Opening with an 18 minute-plus piece takes guts, and requires patience...This band's music blooms...it doesn't happen in seconds...it's meant for a solitary listener...If you have the will power to digest this type of aggressively-lazy music, you can sit back and conjure up countless images in your mind to it...Labradford is not for the antsy...nor is it for those who like to read along with lyrics...there are none...

A better Festival Of Drifting:
Those who were disappointed with the rather aimless noodling on Labradford's previous "E Luxo So" album can take heart in the assurance that "fixed::context" is a more focused and considered offering, one which does not forsake the luxuriously amorphous drift that the band has cultivated over many years. Indeed, more attention is focused on longer term development than the absolute value of the music at any one time, and the only value in the moment lies in the resonance generated by notes and textures that appear to hang in mid air. Erik Satie would most certainly approve.

• Twenty
• Up to Pizmo
• David
• Wien