Jun 26 2008 3:45 pm,
Laymar
‘In Strange Lines And Distances’
(TV Records)
It’d be easy to lump Laymar into a category with instrumental rock noise-makers like Mogwai, Godspeed! and Up C Down C (you see how easy it was to do?), but Laymar are too complex to be compared off-hand to those bands, offering their own brand of quiet-loud-quiet which incorporates not just guitars and eerie silences, but also electronic beats and samples.
Indeed, so complex are they that no matter how many times you listen to this, Laymar’s debut album, you get to know nothing about them, you build no relationships with the band, and they remain more faceless than the Daft Punk robots. It’s difficult even to know whether this is a Kraftwerk-style line of guys at laptops or a full eight-piece band.
Over seven tracks, ‘In Strange Lines And Distances’ staggers from being the most thrilling thing you’ll hear for a long time (‘NU1’), to being daunting and at times terrifying (‘Swords’), like the soundtrack to A Very Bad Thing. But it needs listening to, and it’s one for turning up very loud indeed.
