Good Looking

For a band that named itself after the first dog in outer space – and previous albums called Sounds of the Satellites and Silver Apples of the Moon – you'd think Laika would make spacey ambient music with a focus on quirky beats. And they do, sometimes. The emphasis, though, of Good Looking Blues, the London quartet's third album, is to give equal attention to Margaret Fiedler's smooth, somewhat gothic-and-soul-influenced vocals and the band's mixture of rock, slow electronic, and sit-on-your-couch dance music. Fiedler, who went to grade school with Liz Phair in Winnetka, Illinois and later played in a Smiths-sounding college band with Moby, speak-sings dark fictional stories about life's basic themes: love, sex, death, and work. But it's not quite that simple. For instance, on one of the album's standouts, "Black Cat Bone," she tells a story of a woman who kills her evil husband with voodoo: "Rocks for my pillow and sand for my bed/For better or worse, I left him for dead." Laika's talent is crafting a particular mood.

Dwarves - The Dwarves Are Young And Good Looking (1997) {Recess Records RECESS #37}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 194 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 62 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 45 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1997 Recess Records / Theologian Records | T-53 / Recess #37
Rock / Punk Rock / Hardcore Punk / Garage Punk / Shock Rock / Noise Rock / Scum Punk

The Dwarves' hardcore, attack-the-audience, bloody-nose days were nearly over with the release of Are Young and Good Looking, but the band, now soberer and with a stronger lineup, put out their most satisfying record. At least three songs here are among the heaviest and fiercest tunes they've written, "We Must Have Blood," which absolutely rips, "Throw That World Away," changed from an earlier version where it was called "Throw That Girl Away," and "You Gotta Burn."

With music instantly accessed at the touch of a button, it seems that the urge to pigeonhole bands as quickly and neatly as possible has been driven to ever more extremes in recent years. Good Tiger, however, forge their own path. Blending their influences in a manner that defies lazy classification sets them apart from their contemporaries, imbuing everything they do with a distinctive sound and feel, and with We Will All Be Gone, Good Tiger have dramatically built upon their stunning debut, 2015's A Head Full Of Moonlight. "I think that what a musician wants to do musically is always pretty fluid and can change from day to day," states guitarist Derya "Dez" Nagle.