Release Date: 15 July 2013
Label: Just Music
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 677603009527
Genres: Electronic Alternative
Description
"The first album was us focusing on trying to record songs that we'd composed and written while performing live as a band," he reflects. "Whereas this record was entirely a studio album. We really sat down and wrote and recorded and focused on composing the tracks." Starting in autumn 2011, Gobbi, singer/lyricist Donnelly and Keir Long (piano/synths) devoted themselves to the album - for an entire year.
The twin-track dynamism of their music - the pulse of electronica, the space of classical soundtrack work - is brilliantly realised in a pair of songs at the heart of the album, the spare, minimal 'Seraphine' and 'All I Have', a glitchy, dancefloor-friendly epic that is earmarked as the album's second single - a perfect summer club tune. The juxtaposition of the two, nods Gobbi, was purposeful.
"Serpahine was always a more organic, acoustic-feeling track. It does have Chinese guzheng melodies, which is a dulcimer-like instrument. It was all very played and organic - we had a guest double-bass player too. Then we go straight into a much more uptempo moment. That was a deliberate choice."
The beginning of the album marked the end of Gobbi and Donnelly's nine-year relationship. For sure there are references to the split in Donnelly's new lyrics. But for reasons both personal and artistic, the band prefer to let listeners draw their own conclusions as to which of the songs relate directly to their emotional trials.
Laki Mera are keen readers, and their interest in literature - as well as art and visuals - can't help but bleed into their music. So during the making of 'The Proximity Effect', Gobbi was influenced by Haruki Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. While working on 'Turn All Memory To White Noise' his key literary touchstone was Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, "a pseudo-futuristic book which I found amazingly inspiring.
I followed the life of the main character a lot and read it over and over. There's one particular moment, a tragic moment in the book, where he's left on his own and he's drunk himself silly. . . and he can't cope with reality, so he turns 'all memory to white noise' - like he's turning it all into static, so he can forget about it all for a while, then face reality afterwards when he wakes up."
Keen to use that line from the book as the album title, the band wrote to the Canadian author seeking permission. She read their lyrics and was very happy for them to use to that quote.
Tracklisting
Digitonal
Digitonal
Digitonal
Jon Hopkins
Jon Hopkins
Weatherman
Honeyroot
Marconi Union
Laki Mera
