Description
Label Review.
2019 album also available on Vinyl.
Our Overview.
Lamb return with their 7th studio album ‘The Secret of Letting Go’ after a hiatus of 5 years since the release of 2014’s ‘Backspace Unwind’. Lamb, who are Lou Rhodes and Andy Barlow originally formed in Manchester, UK in 1996 and released their acclaimed self titled debut album. Lamb fuse multiple electronic music styles with a distinctive mix of trip-hop, jazz, dub, breaks and drum and bass with Rhodes' gorgeous, arresting vocals. During a hiatus of several years when the duo split - 2004 to 2009 - Rhodes made a handful of acclaimed solo albums and Barlow produced other artists then to delight of fans in 2016 the duo toured their classic debut album on the 21st anniversary of its release.
‘The Secret of Letting Go’ is all about the space between sounds and was recorded in the space of a year between their home-studio in England’s South Downs and in India and Ibiza. Continuing to push the sonic envelope, title track, ‘The Secret of Letting Go’ was written in the moment the band decided they were splitting up and holds the corner for their endless experimentalism.
From album opener "Phosphorus'" minimalist harmonics to the dying choral embers of "One Hand Clapping"; through the snaking sub-bass drops that drive the title track and "Moonshine" and into the whirl and spin of "Deep Delirium" and the simple piano loops that help "Imperial Measures" float above you, there's space everywhere. Sometimes it's evocative of sun-drenched horizons, at others it is contemplative, reflective; occasionally the space is itchy and anticipatory, pointing towards moments of ecstatic abandon. Throughout the record though, it's the space that allows Lou Rhodes' superlunary voice to glide and soar gloriously to bridge the silences in-between. It's all of this together that makes ‘The Secret of Letting Go’ such an utterly compelling return to form.
This year the band are set to play a handful of special, intimate shows this spring to introduce the album, followed by a summer of festival shows and a more comprehensive tour in Autumn.