When he’s not being Menomena’s freakishly tall drummer, Danny Seim moonlights as Lackthereof. Your Anchor is, impressively, the ninth album he recorded under this moniker (the first six were recorded on cassette tapes that he gave to his mates). It is a decidedly low-key, melodic, melancholy album that bubbles away gloopily across its ten tracks and finishes on a despairingly dark cover version of The National’s ‘Fake Empire’.
Keen listeners looking for traces of the day job will find slowed down (almost tarry) reflections of Menomena’s unconventional rhythms and key changes here, but there is no question that Seim’s side project has a robust identity of its own. As mentioned, it is very, very slow. These songs are slower than Forest Gump. They positively crawl out of your stereo and wander woozily around the place like dazed St Bernard dogs.
Sounds dull right? It’s not. Done right, slow can be good and slow can be pleasant, and Seim succeeds because of his strong songwriting chops. The consistent tone is set on ‘chest pass’ which dribbles a wonderful melody all over its cough-syrup soaked bass and jittering drums. As Danny sings a coda of overlapping la-la-las over the end of the track it’s hard not to picture him swinging in a hammock and grinning with his eyes half open. Anyone who likes the band Low will find a lot to love here. In fact, there is a lot to love here full stop.
MP3: Lackthereof-Choir Practice
10/8/08
Your Anchor
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This review was meant for Analogue a while ago but somehow ended up mouldering on my laptop. It's of the new Lackthereof album 'Your Anchor', which is rather good in that pleasant, backgroundy, never gonna be life-changing way.
When he’s not being Menomena’s freakishly tall drummer, Danny Seim moonlights as Lackthereof. Your Anchor is, impressively, the ninth album he recorded under this moniker (the first six were recorded on cassette tapes that he gave to his mates). It is a decidedly low-key, melodic, melancholy album that bubbles away gloopily across its ten tracks and finishes on a despairingly dark cover version of The National’s ‘Fake Empire’.
Keen listeners looking for traces of the day job will find slowed down (almost tarry) reflections of Menomena’s unconventional rhythms and key changes here, but there is no question that Seim’s side project has a robust identity of its own. As mentioned, it is very, very slow. These songs are slower than Forest Gump. They positively crawl out of your stereo and wander woozily around the place like dazed St Bernard dogs.
Sounds dull right? It’s not. Done right, slow can be good and slow can be pleasant, and Seim succeeds because of his strong songwriting chops. The consistent tone is set on ‘chest pass’ which dribbles a wonderful melody all over its cough-syrup soaked bass and jittering drums. As Danny sings a coda of overlapping la-la-las over the end of the track it’s hard not to picture him swinging in a hammock and grinning with his eyes half open. Anyone who likes the band Low will find a lot to love here. In fact, there is a lot to love here full stop.
MP3: Lackthereof-Choir Practice
When he’s not being Menomena’s freakishly tall drummer, Danny Seim moonlights as Lackthereof. Your Anchor is, impressively, the ninth album he recorded under this moniker (the first six were recorded on cassette tapes that he gave to his mates). It is a decidedly low-key, melodic, melancholy album that bubbles away gloopily across its ten tracks and finishes on a despairingly dark cover version of The National’s ‘Fake Empire’.
Keen listeners looking for traces of the day job will find slowed down (almost tarry) reflections of Menomena’s unconventional rhythms and key changes here, but there is no question that Seim’s side project has a robust identity of its own. As mentioned, it is very, very slow. These songs are slower than Forest Gump. They positively crawl out of your stereo and wander woozily around the place like dazed St Bernard dogs.
Sounds dull right? It’s not. Done right, slow can be good and slow can be pleasant, and Seim succeeds because of his strong songwriting chops. The consistent tone is set on ‘chest pass’ which dribbles a wonderful melody all over its cough-syrup soaked bass and jittering drums. As Danny sings a coda of overlapping la-la-las over the end of the track it’s hard not to picture him swinging in a hammock and grinning with his eyes half open. Anyone who likes the band Low will find a lot to love here. In fact, there is a lot to love here full stop.
MP3: Lackthereof-Choir Practice
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4 comments:
"Wander woozily around the place like dazed St Bernard dogs"
That sentence made me smile!
Last November is the best song on the album. The rest are in fact dull.
It's nice to have on in the background. I'm listening to loads of Jay Reatard at the moment. He's far from background music, he is.
LANKY? That's an amusing keyword to add... no room for "freakishly tall"?
Your Anchor is a solid album but the true genius seems to be hidden in the back catalog. Most of it's on last.fm if you care to wade through it. It's more than evident that behind Danny's cheerful and humorous demeanor is one tortured soul with more pain than an emo album collection. Most of this seems centered around trying to reconcile his fundamentalist christian upbringing. His last article for the Portland Mercury speaks volumes and frankly was painful to read:
http://www.portlandmercury.com/pullout/the-left-behind/Content?oid=735216
But for something a little lighter check out his musical reading of "S.O.S. (King James Version)", a lustful, borderline pornographic reading of the bible passage:
http://daytrotter.com/bookery/1382/lackthereof-bookery
I can't get enough of Danny's music but it's unfortunate that some of the best just depresses the hell out of me... the guy is a genius as far as I'm concerned.
haha, freakishly tall would fit alright. I'll look through the back catalogue menomenation. Thanks!
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