Lamb

This group is brilliant top to bottom

I think they are to trip hop what Curve was to shoegaze, positioned as third wave wannabes or alsorans to such a degree that a lot of people either missed out or refused to recognize how great they were.

Yeah, I guess there's more than a grain of truth in that, but at the same time I think that "trip hop" is a bit of an ill-fitting description for them. I'll concede that there's some traits, but I dunno... there's something about their music which often feels quite apart from that.

Oh, I agree, just as Curve never aimed for the shimmering, dreamy beauty that is a hallmark of so much shoegaze and yet were categorized as such all the same. They were a lot more aggressive and rhythmically interesting, same with Lamb.

Lamb was dubbed trip-hop only due to their setup of keyb/programmer guy + female vocalist. Laika was similarly unfairly pigeonholed. I always thought of both in the context of other post-rock (in S. Reynold's original definition) bands like Disco Inferno, Bark Psychosis, Insides, Long Fin Killie/Bows (hell the Too Pure catalog). All those great 90s bands that were responding to the exhaustion of guitar rock and tentatively exploring outside the box while the weeklies were lauding regressive Britpop.

I dunno - for me Lamb is definitely trip-hop and there's nothing wrong with that. Their last album slayed and I realy need to find more time to spend with it.

tuomas and blueski are correct in their judgment that the K&D mix of "Trans Fatty Acid" owns like few remixes in history and everyone in the universe needs to listen to it. that song's been a part of my life for a decade and a half now; in this time, the same friend who turned me on to this mix was also responsible for my appreciation for Wong Kar-Wai. also he later allegedly faked his own death in order to drop off the internet more or less entirely, although since he may have been caught fakin' he might have needed to try harder.

my point is: the K&D Mix is really really good

K&D mix has none of the soured, paranoid stank of the original, so I'll hold with the original.

I really, really love the awkward stutter-stompy stuff they did, like "Lusty" and "Cotton Wool".

― admiral tub-a-lub (HI DERE), Monday, May 11, 2009 6:47 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ this, This, THIS!

The "awkward stutter-stompy" stuff and their use of meters other than 4/4 is a big part of the appeal of Lamb for me, although I love their more floatier, more "beautiful" tracks too. But man, those awkward beats.

Come to think of it, Lamb and Laika were both equally predisposed toward odd time signatures. "Fear of Fours" indeed.

'Lusty' is 101% fucking amazing.

I love how Fear of Fours tried to actually avoid having a track 4 by using 7 seconds of the outro of 'B Line' (track 3) to make up track 4 on the CD, so the next song proper starts on track 5.

Heh that's pretty good.

The middle part of 'Cotton Wool' where Lou sings in harmony with herself, before the thundering fucked-up beats kick back in = wonderful.

A claim to fame, I helped with the sound effects on the B-Line video years back and got to hang out with them for a day, they were lovely people.

Really!? Nice one!

I think I only saw two Lamb videos on TV back in the '90s, 'B-Line' was one of 'em and 'Cotton Wool' was the other, both once each. 'B-Line' was definitely the better of the two!

I just went to look it up on Youtube and it's not there, which suprised me, but then I found a fairly scuzzy version on Vimeo

Yeah, I just did the same!

My SFX in pop videos hall of fame.

Lamb - B Line
Deus - Instant St
The Bluetones - Autophilia (for which I managed to sneak my mates band coming from a car stereo at the beginning iirc)
Gorillaz - Dere

"5" is so good.

suddenly had an urge to play In Binary and this album still rules

"Doves and Ravens" is a thing of beauty!

I COULD WRAAAAP YOU UUUUUP IN COOOOTOON WOOOOOOOOL!

*amazing stuttery fucked up beats*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89Mb5ya7wOE

fuck yes

Ended up on yet another Lamb kick yesterday after reading that Barlow apparently did some work on the new U2 LP?

like

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdu1sdFOtiE

Hmm, I dunno. Might grow on me. Crusty video is a bit distracting. I do love that Lamb, after disappearing for some time, returned ever engaged and ambitious.

So Barlow did produce several tracks on the most recent U2 (the only one I've never heard)? Are they any good?