ELECTRIC COMPANY Slow Food Record label: Planet Mu (UK) Format: CD Release date: 9 April 2001 Brad Laner has made some interesting musical strides thus far. His past life was in the rock group Medicine, an outfit that produced the finest mess of mangled scales and notes this side of My Bloody Valentine. A Pert Cyclic Omen (his debut album under the Electric Company moniker) saw Laner taking a turn for more musically twisted terrain, and never had something so wrong felt so right. Whatever chaos was unleashed on that album has now been harnessed and utilized strategically on Slow Food, ElCo’s fourth album. There’s a gentleness and sensitivity that can be found all over the album, even while the moods swing and the rhythmic patterns shift like earth tremors under your feet. “Yresbo” and “New Imbalance” contains sounds that don’t necessarily collide, but drift through life unaware of each other’s existence, and the end result is heard several yards away. There are two collaborations with Tigerbeat6 members: “Oiyaho” with Lexanculpt and “Men’s Pocky” with Kid 606. (Funny thing is, you can tell the Kid had something to do with that track, due to the nervous twitch of the clicks and cuts on it. Could artists be developing “signature glitches”? COULD CLICKS AND CUTS BECOME PREDICTABLE? that’ll be the day...) {steve crognale} purchase this album in MP3 form at bleep.com. visit the Planet Mu label site. back to OTV reviews page back to reviews home