Description:	LP on Teardrops
	Format:	LP (vinyl)
	Genre(s):	Experimental / Abstract
	Label:	Teardrops
	Price:	£11.79
	Availability:	Sold out / currently unavailable. Sorry!

5
...according to our Business Lady on 09 July 2009.

YO YO YO!!! New Lucky Dragons LP = Happy Business Lady. Lucky Dragons have existed in one form or another for a fare while now and though their records are not easy to track down, these LA based loop enthusiasts have a lot to offer so you should seek them out. Or, you could invest in 'Open Power', probably their most consistent and widely available release so far. Listening to a Lucky Dragons record is kinda like sifting through a sketch book. Lots of ideas! Almost too many to appreciate in one sitting. Here are some of the basic things you need to know about Lucky Dragons; they commonly process their ideas on computers yet they sound like a free form, organic improvised duo. They love percussive loops and use them whenever possible. They have an innate ability to weave impossibly satisfying melodies. They are playful and amusing in everything they do. They share certain traits with Baltimore's Animal Collective but they are tons better YO! Side A contains two amazingly consistent tunes. 'Traveling song' and 'Open Melody' take in elements of Steve Reich and twist them into fun shapes and patterns. Both tracks are really tranquil and sound good at both 45 and 33RPM, can't say that about many records. The B-side has three slightly more out there experiments. 'Power melody' is awesome with it's unabashed use of pan pipes and flutes to create a north african style party groove. I'll stop now because I'll be at it all day but rest assured, this is an awesome record. If you got their last 7" collection and liked it a lot, then you'll more than likely be fully amazed by this. If you like Black Dice, glockenspiel Pit Er Pat, Animal Collective, Mahjongg and those new tropical drone concept records from James Ferrero then you should check this out for sure.

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What their label says...

Open Power is the latest 12 offering from Lucky Dragons. 5 songs, 700 pressed. It is, without a doubt, their most cohesive, beautiful and excellent effort to date. You often hear Lucky Dragons, the Los Angeles-based duo of Luke Fischbeck and Sara Rara, discussed in the context of Animal Collective. There are some connections: Both groups are fond of looped hand percussion, day-glo melodies, and spirited improvisation. And recently, both camps released albums that hung on techno-conceptual conceitsin 2007, Animal Collectives Avey Tare issued backwards-running Pullhair Rubeye, which magically turned into folk music when reversed. Lucky Dragons had Widows in 2006, an album of speedy glitch tracks that transformed into something very much like Animal Collective songs when slowed and pitched down about 50% (download Audacity and see for yourself). Widows was great; Rubeye was not, and this gets at why comparing the two groups is off-target. In short, Animal Collectives project is fundamentally musical. Lucky Dragons project is fundamentally conceptual, rooted in the broader context of the art world. Their work is better suited to galleries than nightclubs and was, in fact, included in the 2008 Whitney Biennial exhibition. To Lucky Dragons, process seems at least as important as results, and their process is heavily indebted to Pauline Oliveros methods of turning spectators into actors. Lucky Dragons music is inextricably bound to their other pursuits, so the album format presents obvious challenges and even seems to contradict the essentially participatory nature of their projects. Segregated from their interdisciplinary practice and audience interactions, on record their music inevitably sounds dislocated; only a fraction of the musics contextual scope is perceptible. Dream Island Laughing Language therefore sounds more like a sketchbook than an album, but its quite rewarding if you meet it on its own terms. Lucky Dragons throw a lot of stuff at the wall here; its remarkable how much of it sticks. The short interludes are clever and seductivethe 36 seconds of numinous peals on Clipped Gongs, the mini-madrigal Oh I Understand, the minute or so of whiplash interference on Wheres Adam. A whole album of this might have been frustrating, although theres more than initially meets the ear-- there are secret melodies stashed in precise tangles of pitched percussion on tracks like Morning Ritual, Typical Hippies, and Desert Rose. Mysterious as they are, the set pieces work great as mortar between more realized, intelligible bricks. There are sleek beats folded in, like the vigorous ostinato on the Crystal Castles-esque I Keep Waiting for Earthquakes. Free Guys by the Sea, with its clattery percussion and sprightly flutes, is just a few vocal affectations away from bhangra. Electro-acoustic spasms full of cut-up singing, such as Wooden Cave Loop and Givers, evoke the cartoon glitch-world of Dan Deacon. The overall impression is that, almost 10 years into their career, Lucky Dragons still havent chosen a certain kind of cultural product to be. That redounds to their credit on Dream Island Laughing Language, where each track seems to document the groups rebirth as (to borrow from their manifesto) new and temporary creatures.