The highly experimental reuniting of a pair of longtime collaborators, Lofting is Libby Ramer (keys, vocals and electronics) and Ben Billington (percussion, keys, and modular synth), who previously played together in the Chicago outfits Moonrises (2008-2013) and Partner (2013-2015). Their project as Lofting came about due to COVID isolation, where Ramer\u2019s rough outlines were fleshed out in both studio and home settings between 2022 and 2023, and Billington handles mixing duties, too. <\/p>\n
The droning dreaminess of \u201cBells\u201d begins the listen with the sounds of birds, sci-fi buzzing and a rare, glowing intimacy, which continues to the percussive focused \u201cDown In The Round,\u201d as Ramer\u2019s soft voice is met with rich, engaging synth.<\/p>\n
The middle is where some of the most unusual songs reside, with \u201cBirds\u201d giving off a nearly mechanical feel of fascinating electronics, while \u201cSail\u201d is soft and ambient in its soulful and cultured presence. \u201cMending,\u201d the album\u2019s standout track, contains some of the best singing, as a sublime eloquence is met with mysterious percussive sounds and a stirring ambience.<\/p>\n
Landing close to the end, \u201cSunder The Veil\u201d embraces plenty of meditative qualities amid the lush layers of organic versus synthetic ideas that tips it hat to the \u201980s, and \u201cGalaxy\u201d exits with a more firm demeanor of bright keys, frisky drumming and strategic repetition from Ramer\u2019s mesmerizing\u2014even hypnotic\u2014vocal tone. <\/p>\n
An effort that uses minimalism to its advantage, Ramer and Billington\u2019s new album recruits noisey, psychedelic and prog-friendly bits of songwriting into this very unique nine-track affair. Though comparisons are essentially useless, Stereolab and Brainticket are worth mentioning, as the duo balance mood, serenity and fuller bouts of atypical pop that\u2019s as colorful as the striking artwork that suits the cassette-only physical format.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":34958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[10935],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-46830","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-lofting","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46830"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46830"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}