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Lauge & Baba Gnohm - Langbortistan


Melancholyman

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1. Langbortistan

2. Dybet

3. H2O

4.Refleksioner

5.Nordlys

6. Hypnose

7. Rejsen


How does an album come to be? Is it just parts sewn together, or is there some connection between them? Are tracks evolving from one another in one direction, from the first sound to a full fledged album, just as the universe supposedly sprang from a first instant and then evolved into the reality we can witness today, maybe the big bang was a sound, a sound that signified the starting point of the symphony that we call life. Or can the tracks interact with each other and the sound that was the starting point, are there mutual relations of supportive creation in between them? I'm not an artist, or a music producer, so I wouldn't be the right person to answer these questions. What I do know is that I have the fullest respect for creative individuals but also for creativity and creation in general, since I don't think creativity or creation solely applies to individuals, that is individual human beings, but to countless other things in the universe as well. So of course I had great respect towards Lauge&Baba Gnohm when I had the chance to follow them on a journey, starting from nothing and resulting in their first full length album. I have had the chance to listen to the tracks as they were made and comment on them, if I had any influence over them I cannot say but it was a fun task nonetheless. This also created a sort of personal relation to the album, watching it grow and evolve into it's final stages, resulting in this album being very dear to me before I even assumed the task of reviewing it, and I urge the reader to take this into account, but I will try to curb my enthusiasm while reviewing.



Longbortistan is an album with attitude, I think that after having released two radically different EP's, Daybreak and Monolith, Lauge&Baba Gnohm found an equilibrium in between those two approaches to downtempo, and made it with an initial self confidence that is reflected on this album. Responses to the EP's were good, although many reactions were that the tracks were very similar in character, but somehow still different enough to be entertaining and not repetitive. This is also the case on Långbortistan, it's hard to differentiate the tracks when listening to the album, but it never gets boring or repetitive, how this is done I cannot say but my guess is subtle elements playing a bigger role than my direct awarness can perceive.



The overall pace is slow, hard hitting, groovy and at the same time very psychedelic. There isn't a ton of complexity fused into the tracks, and this has never been a hallmark for Lague&Baba Gnohm, rather the hallmark is the strong emphasis on melodic content. Lauge&Baba Gnohm manages to fuse this cocky bass driven approach with melodic and ethereal elements, resulting in a very unique album. It's an album that brings to mind mysterious and peculiar conceptions, the true domain of psychedelic experience. As far as my experience has showed, artists tend to have this kind of air on earlier albums, fumbling around in a sort of unknown void, then after time the albums become more and more commonplace in character, I think this is a result of an artist sort of moving into a niche, not as to make an album bad or uninteresting, but that initial sense of mystery is diminished. Långbortistan is an album I would place in that early stage of development and brings about this very appealing mysterious characteristic.



The pace combined with an overall cohesive approach to the music makes it easy to depart on a more contemplative journey, so if you are into that kind of stuff this album will suit you very well. This is not space ambient or anything like that, this is highly beat driven melodic stuff, almost every track has it's own distinct melody and these are more often than not greatly executed, a perfect example of this is Hypnose(T7). The melodies are of the simplistic kind that get stuck in your head, in a good way.



Lauge&Baba Gnohm has made a groovy, psychedelic, melodic and mysterious album packed in a modest pace, resulting in a great first full length album. It's the journey that's interesting not the goal and Lauge&Baba Gnohm has just begun their long walk toward their (supposedly) not yet known niche.

If you like this review please check out my Blog at http://thenoseisperpendicular.blogspot.com/
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  • 2 weeks later...

Nice review, I have to check this album out.

I will also start visiting your blog there.

 

 

Thx! Altough the blog is sort of updated quite seldom. But I will also post the reviews I write there here. So you won't be missing out if not visiting, maybe some offtopic jaga like fractals :)

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  • 3 months later...

Amazing album! Very untimae'ish... It keeps on growing on me after each listen, definitely one of the best 2011 albums :D

Too bad the limited edition CD was only 100 prints!!! Glad I got one, but I imagine a few hundred more could have been sold!

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 years later...

With the speed of a snail moving uphill with a piano on his back this is some dreamy downtempo goodness. Epic melodies with pads that seem to stretch on forever. I can see why some might say this has a drone aspect to it. It's beautiful stuff that's not in a hurry to get anywhere. And I'm enjoying the journey. I would say if there is one drawback it is that he rides a theme all the way into the sunset. By that I mean a phrase that is undoubtedly beautiful is spread out over several minutes thereby lessening it's impact.

 

BTW anyone know what the title means?

 

Mdk

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BTW anyone know what the title means?

'Langtbortistan' is a recurring fictional country in Danish Disney comics, translated quite directly from 'Faroffistan' and first seen in a 1959 Dumbo story. I don't know what happened to the 't'. 'Lang' means 'long' but it usually takes a '-t' suffix when used as an adverb...I think. Maybe a native Danish speaker can clarify this important detail.

 

Anyway, 'Faroffistan' largely conveys the main idea as far as I know.

 

'Langbort' is also the last name of some people but I don't know whether that's relevant here.

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