Lisnaholic

First listen, I felt as enthusiastic as bob about this album: it`s a lot livelier than many ambient albums I`ve heard, and all the tracks have something going on, a relaxed beat or something else to hold your interest. There is even some powerful, distorted guitar playing on Love Life of an Octopus, which makes it my fave track.

But after listening some more, I began to share some of Pedestrian`s misgivings too; there are some slow, repetitive parts, and worse, peeping through the whole album, were various sections that felt as if I`d heard them before. One bit could`ve been by Edgar Froesse ; when I heard Liquid Crystals I thought I`d put on the Ummagumma live album by mistake, while a couple of other tracks reminded me strongly of this album from 1972 :-



As I`d never come across Yo La Tengo before, Zero`s detailed analysis was very interesting to read, especially the part about how the album was conceived as a soundtrack. That certainly explains its rather un-assertive quality.

So, summing up, I`d say that this band have done a really good, but rather unambitious job. Apparently content to make an album of more-or-less background music, and to recycle the sounds of earlier innovators, they`ve produced a very agreeable album. I`m sure I`ll listen to, and enjoy it again, but I`ll probably only play it when I have something else to occupy my attention !