LABRADFORD - Prazision LP (ristampa)

The debut album by Labradford, as well as the inaugural title in the Kranky catalogue, "Prazision LP" originally came out in October 1993, immediately catching the attention of the specialist press and the underground intelligentsia. To describe the music of the then-duo, critics invoked sacred names of psychedelia and German electronic music, evoked the ambient work of Brian Eno, and drew comparisons with the contemporary English scene (the so-called Bristol-psycho), carried forward by acts like Flying Saucer Attack and Main. Many also took the record as a crucial marker in the definition of so-called "post-rock", a movement for which the duo soon became godfathers, alongside a handful of other bands.

Today, confirming both the quality and the "historical" value of the work, the Chicago label has put together a reissue that adds to the original the single "Everlast" (which, incidentally, was already included on the previous CD version) and its B-side "Preserve The Sound Outside", the tracks with which the group debuted back in '92. In short, an excellent opportunity to bring attention back to one of the most original records of the past decade, and to a band whose sound, needless to say, proved hugely influential.

Recorded solely by Carter Brown (moog, vocoder, synth) and Mark Nelson (electric and acoustic guitars, tape loops, vocals), "Prazision" presents itself as an eleven-track excursion into territories that only fleetingly brush against rock's common tropes, favouring instead solutions closer to the avant-garde. "Listening In Depth", placed at the opening, is a prime example of this attitude, crossed by psych winds that touch on industrial figures pulsing statically for the entire length of the track. The same happens in "Experience The Gated Oscillator", built around noise modulations, or in "Sliding Glass", where sparse guitar notes are intermittently submerged beneath cosmic drones. These are tracks that already offer a fine compendium of the two musicians' modus operandi: a few notes, sometimes a single sound, are sketched out, and from them, through careful layering of instruments, minimal yet fully realised sonic structures are built.

Elsewhere, calmer, almost ambient atmospheres take over instead, as in "Splash Down", with a barely whispered voice lost among synth touches and minimal guitar textures; the same goes for tracks like "C. Of People", the ethereal "Disremembering", or "Soft Return", where echoes of Spacemen 3 dissolve over barely sketched-out backdrops.

Melodies that are at times impalpable, occasionally brushing against isolationism, alternate with moments of the opposite sign, where post-industrial landscapes and dark, oppressive, Lynchian atmospheres take over (a fascination that would grow ever clearer from one album to the next). Sounds that are never cold or self-indulgent, music that is ambient in nature but conceals actual songs underneath. "Accelerating On A Smoother Road" drives the point home: an acoustic guitar, almost shoegaze in its insistence on just a few chords, almost apocalyptic folk in its pace, carries the track on its own, accompanied by sighs and a few sparse piano flourishes.

And so it goes on, right up to the closing "Skyward With Motion", the album's most radical episode, an ambient-noise piece that stretches out for over eight minutes before giving way to an organ and then, as expected, to silence.

After this, Labradford would release five more albums, continuing their quest for an ever more impalpable sound, ever closer to musical stasis. At the same time, Mark Nelson would venture into electronic territory with his solo project Pan American.

But it's worth stressing again, just to be clear, that this is where it all began.

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06/01/2008