LUMP

LUMP: One of the most important and necessary works of this decade

~ Michael Stevenson ~ Leave a comment

It is ten years since Laura Marling’s solo debut ‘Alas I Cannot Swim’ brought the English songwriter into the spotlight, winning her a Mercury Music Prize nomination. Another five studio albums later and it is clear that Marling has strived to stretch her boundaries with every release, never settling for mediocrity. Her latest offering takes this to a whole new level. In June of 2016, she met Mike Lindsay of Tunng who is also a Mercury Prize-winning producer and was invited to collaborate on his experimental composition project. The duo locked themselves away in Lindsay’s underground London studio and LUMP was born.

The wonderful deep sounding harmonium that opens LUMP should soothe, but it doesn’t. It’s different, but how? It has been manipulated in some way, altered somehow. I think of the Other Side in Stranger Things. The original sound is still there, but it has been damaged…affected. I don’t mean that it has been distorted or filtered. It feels like a living thing…a being on its last legs. Marling’s voice, when it enters, settles into the scene perfectly.

 

If you keep rolling the dices,
Keep that stake in your heart.

You look like a crooner in crisis,
Shaking your hips like it’s hot”

The drama builds but so organically. Discordant and emotive. This opening track is truly one of the most original and moving pieces of music I have heard in a long time. As it concludes, it really does feel that the harmonium entity has truly given everything it had in that performance.

 

May I be the Light takes the reins with a pumping Pink Floyd ‘On the Run’ style Moog setting the pace. I really am aware how insulting it could be to suggest that any sound on this album could be attained simply by a preset on a synth. A more apt comparison could be to think of the final chord in the Beatles ‘Day in the Life’. What sounds like a simple piano recording was actually four people playing three pianos with George Martin on Harmonium, all played at the exact same time. My point is that I believe that every nuance of this album has been given the same effort by Mike Lindsay to create a never seen before sonic landscape. What is even more amazing is that a song like May I be the Light can carry such unique sonics, yet be so musical and fit for daytime radio.

 

Without so much as a stop for breath, Rolling Thunder takes over. Two things strike me. The first is that for a project involving two people, for the most part, it sounds epic. The first reason is Mike Lindsay’s limitless imagination of soundscapes, the second being the chameleon-like voice of Laura Marling. Her subtle vocal variations provide a new character, not just for every track but perhaps several times within each track. Continue reading →

Laura Marling & Mike Lindsay on crabs, yetis and surrealism

~ Michael Stevenson ~ Leave a comment

LUMP is a collaborative album from Mike Lindsay and Laura Marling. NME talked to the pair about Father John Misty and Kate Bush influences

For a project as dreamy and cerebral as LUMP, its birthplace is an improbable one. On 11 June, 2016, Laura Marling and Tunng‘s Mike Lindsay met for the first time at a bowling alley inside The O2, while the former was supporting Neil Young on his UK arena tour. Just two days later, the pair were in the studio recording what would become a 32-minute collaborative album, and within the week Marling had recorded all her parts.

It’s only now, 22 months on, that the self-titled album has been announced for release via Dead Oceans on June 1. It’s an album informed by the Surrealist Manifesto, Father John Misty and Marling’s six-year-old goddaughter, and the project itself is lovingly depicted by a yeti that the duo insist is LUMP made manifest. “It will continue to create itself from here on,” says the accompanying promo. “Lindsay and Marling will assist it as necessary.” [ . . . ] 

More at Source: LUMP interview: Laura Marling & Mike Lindsay on crabs, yetis and surrealism

Laura Marling Announces New Album With LUMP, Shares New Song: Listen

~ Michael Stevenson ~ Leave a comment

LUMP is Marling’s new project with Tunng’s Mike Lindsay

Laura Marling has teamed up with Mike Lindsay (founding member of Tunng and Throws) for a new project called LUMP. Their self-titled debut album is out June 1 via Dead Oceans. This morning they’ve shared “Curse of the Contemporary”: Watch the animated video, which was created by motion graphics designer Esteban Diacono, below.

In writing for LUMP, Marling was inspired by early 20th century surrealism and the absurdist poets Edward Lear and Ivor Cutler, according to a press release. The singer-songwriter’s most recent release, Semper Femina, arrived last year. Lindsay released Throws’ self-titled debut in 2016, while his last Tunng’s LP, Turbines, came in 2013. Read about Marling in “A Brief History of Musical Wunderkinds” on the Pitch.

Source: PITCHFORK Laura Marling Announces New Album With LUMP, Shares New Song: Listen | Pitchfork