4 out of 5
Label: Hungarian
Produced by: Laddio Bolocko
Carving off the extreme edges of Laddio Bolocko’s sub-genre-spanning sounds end up making their sophomore effort, In Real Time, the superior album of their two: its identity feels more set; its intentions less guarded. At the same time, those edges – the very fact that LB’s debut was able to divebomb from krautrock minimalism to post-hardcore to free jazz – were arguably what made that first album so notable; without them, these five tracks, though excellent, are easier to lose track of in a then-sea of similar acts.
The pattern of Strange Warmings is arguably similar: give us some more direct rock up front before a transitional song brings in the jazz. …Only the year or so between this album and that one has allowed the Tortoise / Thrill Jockey vibes to become a lot more prominent: while LB’s indefinableness made their standalone Hungarian label make sense – for their followup EP as well, which somewhat continued this album’s thread but down an endless, light-in-the-distance alley – most of IRT would’ve sat perfectly aside tour mates’ Trans Am’s label home. Still, despite the streamlining, Bolocko’s full embrace of jazz in an un-cheeky way makes the latter half of this disc pretty indispensable, finding a line between the chilled style of many of their peers, the kind of minimalist noise rock that Blake Fleming brought with him via his Skin Graft lineage, and the blast of free jazz anarchists like The Flying Luttenbachers or early AMM, resulting in 10- and 7-minute jams that lumber about but don’t wander: LB’s purposefulness in their compositions had previously been about prickliness, but here they finally invite you in to tap your toe along with them.
Opener Beatrice the Coyote brings in the last remnants of Don Cab and Brise-Glace; Laddio’s Money is a great Touch and Go style popsong – making its “Death of a Popsong” subtitle… aces.
In Real Time maybe could have been the swan song, though its better heard in retrospect, I think. At the time, it was too easy to get it mixed up with all the aforementioned references; as those other bands have continued and carved out their evolutionary paths, their albums from this time feel very of the time, whereas LB gets to maintain its semi-removed vibe, with the concluding tracks on IRT their final adieu to accessibility.
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