Lullabye Arkestra

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

4...according to our Ant on Wed 15 Nov, 2006.

The LULLABYE ARKESTRA long player 'Amp Grave' is well worth checking out. This Canadian bass and drum duo serve up a tasty dish of 'distorto soul'. I nicked that from the press release cos it's pretty spot on. There's lots of horns on here that in places is sound like Ennio Morricone or Bierut. The boy girl vocals are raw, sometimes primal, sometimes incredibly tender,but most importantly they're sincere. Their sound is an intriguing hybrid of eastern European sounding folk, dirty blues and garage soul. The duo are joined by ten other musicians adding sax, organ, bellows, trumpet and violin. The drummer is actually Justin Small of Do Make Say Think and and I reckon if you like them then you ought to check this. Likewise if you're into The Gossip, Black Lips, The Birthday Party, Quintron etc. Quality as always on Constellation.

Lullabye Arkestra are a bass and drum duo who've been playing and self-releasing glorious slabs of distorto-soul for several years. Formed in Toronto by Justin (drums) and Katia (bass), the Ark has played shows throughout eastern Canada as a duo and as a large band, adding horns, voices and organ. Their slow, swampy, overdriven cover of "Summertime" was an early signature tune, along with a clutch of original rave-ups ranging from one-minute combustions of riffage and hollering to longer, fuzzed-out R&B numbers, often marked by those sincere but sassy boy/girl call-and-response vocals that make everyone's day.

Their new album, and first for Constellation, is a knockout. Bursting with barely controlled chaos on some numbers, stripped back to sultry, art-damaged loversoul on others, Ampgrave is a hell of a good time, full of testifying and tenderness, see-sawing between massed instruments and the raw minimalism of the core rhythm section. Justin rounds up fellow Do Make Say Think players Ohad, Brian and Jason on horns and hollering, along with Shelton Deverell on organ and Julie Penner on violin. An additional 10-voice "Chorus Oblivia" of exuberant caterwaul also rallies to the cause.

Opening track "Unite!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" explodes into a beautiful cacophony of horn vamps, crashing through ascending chord crescendos while screamo vocals punctuate the flight. "All I Can Give Ya" builds from a delicate exchange of devotional verses by Justin and Kat, towards a soaring, searing chorus. "Hold On" follows with another round of call and response vocals laid over a slow, pummeling soul groove, before bursting into it's distressed, desperate refrain. "Y'Make Me Shake" is entirely self-explanatory, and rounds out Side One. Our lovers continue to rock on the flipside, with the album's centerpiece lullabye "Come Out, Come Out" kicking things off. Three mighty tunes pile up from there, gaining crazed momentum until the final swirl of "Bulldozer of Love" segues into the four-on-the-floor anthematics of "Ass Worship". Hail! Hail! Rock n' roll. Ampgrave is blistering and beautiful CPR for the soul. Constellation is thrilled to serve up this platter of unabashed, unpretentious rock action.

Lullabye Arkestra's Ampgrave is available on CD and 180gLP. Thanks for listening.

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