Lach
The Calm Before
By Lucie Davies

A cursory glance over the press release for Brooklyn folk-punk hero Lach’s latest is a helpful suggestion of what’s to come. Dropping the rambling, flowery bio in favour of cut and pasted press quotes, bullet points and text boxes, it assaults the eyes with a riot of information that’s reminiscent of the black and white xeroxed flyers Lach started out promoting his ground-breaking sound with back in the ’80s. So it’s no surprise that The Calm Before is as far from what that title suggests as possible. Proffering a collage of ironic protest, subverted love and well-observed situational comedy songs, New York’s enigmatic institution loses none of his trademark wit on his fifth LP. Like 2004’s Today, electric guitars are eschewed in favour of acoustic ones, which collide with punk-ish sax, sweet harmonies and Lach’s Dylan-ish croak on catchy little numbers whose jauntiness belie their political bent. Anyone who wants to find out what anti-folk was up to before a bunch of young wannabes (Beck, Regina Spektor, Jeffrey Lewis, Moldy Peaches, to name a few) melted it down and made it into something new, should study this record carefully. Everyone else: batten down the hatches, sit back, relax and enjoy the storm. (Fortified)
Annotations of an Autopsy - The Reign of Darkness
Blessure Grave - Judged By Twelve, Carried By Six
Magnetic Fields / Laura Barrett
Hillside Inside Featuring Owen Pallett, Ani Di Franco, Basia Bulat, Bahamas, Hawksley Workman
The Golden Filter / LA Riots / Junior Boys
Hollerado - Record in a Bag
Orphaned Land - The Never Ending Way of ORwarriOR
Pantha Du Prince - Black Noise
Watson Twins - Talking To You, Talking To Me
Buzzcocks - Another Music In A Different Kitchen / Love Bites / A Different Kind Of Tension
Sade - Soldier Of Love
Yukon Blonde - Yukon Blonde
Steve Kaldestad - Blow-Up
Galactic - Ya-Ka-May
Gil Scott-Heron - I’m New Here
Dawn Of Demise - A Force Unstoppable
Janine Stoll - Melancholia
Stygian - Fury Rising
Shining - VI — Klagopsalmer
The Kandidate - Until We Are Outnumbered
Troll - Neo-Satanic Supremacy
Meshuggah - Alive
Dark Fortress - Ylem
Massive Attack - Heligoland
Fear Factory - Mechanize
Reckless Kelly - Somewhere In Time
Arsis - Starve For The Devil
DevilDriver / Suffocation / Thy Will Be Done / Goatwhore
Asobi Seksu
James Blackshaw / Gary Higgins
Lil Wayne - Rebirth
Light This City - The Hero Cycle
Lightspeed Champion - Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You
Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba - I Speak Fula
Georgia Anne Muldrow - King’s Ballad
Droids Attack - Must Destroy
Hot Chip - One Life Stand
Ellen Allien / Various - Watergate O5
Through The Eyes Of The Dead - Skepsis
Pierced Arrows - Descending Shadows
Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe 2: Noble Jackals, Penny Dreadfuls and the Systematic Dehumanization of Cool
Pawel - Pawel
Children Of Celebrities - Stereo Bang Bang
Midlake - The Courage Of Others
Guns N’ Roses
Julie Doiron / Attack in Black
Tegan and Sara / An Horse
Nouvelle Vague
Arch Enemy / Exodus
Between the Buried and Me / Cynic / Devin Townsend Project / Scale the Summit
Fucked Up - Couple Tracks
Magnetic Fields - Realism
Strong Arm Steady - In Search of Stoney Jackson
Harvey Milk - Harvey Milk
Basia Bulat - Heart Of My Own
Ihsahn - After
Living Sacrifice - The Infinite Order
Ihsahn - After
Steve Earle / Joel Plaskett
Scuba / Various - Sub:Stance
Make Me Young - Make Me Young
Taking Dawn - Time To Burn
Postdata - Postdata
Woodhands - Remorsecapade
Buraka Som Sistema / Various - Fabriclive 49
Beach House - Teen Dream
Los Campesinos! - Romance Is Boring
Various - Born Again Funk
Wetdog - Frauhaus!
Coolzey - The Honey
Rel!G!Ion - Revelations 1
Buraka Som Sistema / Various - Fabriclive 49
Chicago Underground Duo - Boca Negra
Cars & Trains - The Roots, the Leaves
Morton Feldman / Milton Babbitt / Phoenix Ensemble - Clarinet Quintets
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