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Laddio Bolocko - The Life & Times of Laddio Bolocko (No Quarter)

by Ari Abramowitz
8 June 2006

This is a comprehensive, two-disk retrospective of this obscure (but increasingly name-dropped) New York-based post-punk/rock band, whose core sound featured taut, punchy, and propulsive rhythm-based instrumentals that ranged from the cut-up thump, smack, and space of THIS HEAT to the more organic circularity of CAN. Prog rock, no wave, free jazz, and ethno-ambient all informed different elements of the band’s sound.

Rhythm is the motor here, which is not surprising considering that the man who drove the ship is BLAKE FLEMING, from the super-skilled, rhythmically demanding, prog-post-hard core DAZZLING KILLMEN. He sticks mostly to tricky but authoritative rhythms, tending away from flashy fills, reminiscent of CHARLES HEYWARD’s style with This Heat. Fleming’s drums have an appropriate cannon-boom that approximates a lo-fi version of the “JOHN BONHAM sound.” The guitars build involving, repeating, overlapping patterns, often dissonant but not necessarily abrasive. Tone and atmosphere are emphasized over melody in a way that suggests the goal is more architectural than destructive, though melody and noise are both in evidence. Some saxophone appears now and then for some blowing that’s usually on the skronky side, but adds an effective free jazz element. When it all comes together, LADDIO BOLOCKO’s music sounds tight and sparse, yet still expansive, as if it had been recorded in a stone cavern with 100’ ceilings or a cinder block practice room with a sun roof.

The two-disk set covers everything Laddio Bolocko released and proceeds in reliable, chronological order, making it easy to track the band’s evolution over its brief, three-year life span (1997-2000). The first disk, the denser and noisier of the two, starts with the energetic “Goat Lips”—welcoming, confident guitar chords give way to a hard-groove drum beat and some guitar scratching that is pretty close to being overtly funky. In comes an interesting, tense, high, chorded, double-picked guitar ‘solo,’ which, isolated by itself, approximates mid-‘70s ROBERT FRIPP approximating an ambulance alarm. “Nurser” is probably the peak of this disk and again conjures Fripp’s in/tense chording when the track then devolves into skronk and cuts out only to open the door to another discrete prog kick: a snare drum beat quoted almost directly from NEIL PEART’s immortal ride cymbal intro to RUSH’s “YYZ.” And the references don’t end there as this, in turn, lays the ground work for a slow-build of drone, scree, and skronk cacophony that swirls and swells to a crescendo reminiscent of… THE BEATLES’ “A Day in the Life”! The swell, unfortunately, never gives us the divine money shot that Lennon/McCartney do, choosing instead to plateau and peter out. But still, nods to King Crimson, Rush, and The Beatles, all in the same post-everything track suggests more than casual intent. That these reminiscences don’t really sound like their sources suggests either delusion on my part or brilliant compositional evolution on Laddio Bolocko’s part. (Most likely, both.)

The last track of the disk, “Y Toros” is an unendurable 35-minute eye-glazer with a single beat and abstract electronics on top of it. The track cuts out for around 6 minutes in the middle and then resumes where it left off, until the 31 minute mark, where it comes to a noisy, yet decidedly non-cathartic, conclusion. I know of people who claim to like this track, but I’m skeptical. Unfortunately, the repetition is not inherently interesting, even with the smallest of alterations, nor is zombifying the same as trance-inducing.

The second disk shows a genuinely evolved band. The space is opened further than on the earlier tracks. The skronk and aggression are turned down a bit. The tracks are generally shorter, with distinct melodies emerging in most of them. Even the sax plays with gentleness and warmth. It’s almost as if the band is loosening up, if not exactly mellowing out. The beats are moving more towards the organic style of repetition of Can’s JAKI LEIBZEIT, with hints of Middle Eastern and African vibes also floating in the air. Opening track, “As If By Remote,” shows off this new sound in no uncertain terms. Throughout the disk, there are drones, organs, floral flutes, and keys, with funky polyrhythms, squiggly synths, fuzz guitar coming in, cutting out, all of them grooving relatively peacefully. A couple of highlights include the driving, busy-bass funky “Beatrice the Coyote” and the rhythm suite “The Going Gong.” The final track, suitably called “In Search of Bolocko” provides an appropriate recap of LB’s approach, with a few minutes of exploration, an emerging groove, lightly-introduced sax and guitar, slowly opening up until it attains noise status, everyone accelerating and then ultimately fading into the sunset. Laddio Bolocko may have faded-out as band, but its influence has already started a reverse-fade of its own.

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Filed under post-punk prog

Comments

This is where you run into the paradox and dilemma of contemporary rock. You have an attempt here to bring a solid experimental and improvisational aspect to the whole rock and roll type thing and as far as it goes you have nice little atmospheric jams here, some very skilled musicianship involved-I’ve meet Blake Flemming- he’s a f***er, but he can play the drums, I’ll have to admit. But Laddio Bolocko thought they where making music that was revolutionary. Well, no not really- but hey, it’s hard to do that, and that was a time and place with a lot to compete with. Williamsburg in the late 90’s produced DJ Spooky’s Songs of a Dead Dreamer. Spooky I’ve meet him he’s a f***er too but people buy his records. That’s the other thing with Laddio Bolocko is no one cares about this material much. It’s hard to even find this album in specialty record stores in Brooklyn which is where they were based out of. Record store employees and people that write for small magazines don’t even care anymore. Wait, guess what? Listening to obscure music doesn’t make you smart! Laddio Bolocko was white boys in the late 90’s trying to sound like Sun Ra sort of but also with a little bit of a 70’s German rock thing, a little like Can. They get a nice little groove going and improvise over it. They fit with the times. Electric Turn To Me and Psychic Paramount grew out of Laddio. Psychic Paramount fallows more in line with Laddio in being instrumental and improvisational whereas Electric Turn To Me sounded like a goth band, all though in interviews they claimed a late 60’s is more what they where going for. Goth actually has a lot of staying power in part because it has maintained a nice little role as soundtrack to the S&M scene and in the 60’s you had some real acid floating around back then and happenings etc. Electric Turn To Me they played to empty rooms and got mixed reviews. They where NOT rivals of Joy Division and they where NOT rivals of Love or Syd Barrett, musically or otherwise. When one hears Laddio Bolocko Electric Turn To Me seem quite baffling. Laddio at least where not restricted by the limits of 4/4 time and chorus-verse-chorus song structure, so there is a musical element of interest their. Their actually isn’t that much capacity for artistic expression in rock and roll in and of itself but you have this thing these days where Thurston Moore gives an interview for Wire and plays himself off as a genius and people buy it somehow, and if you’re one of those people F*** YOU that’s insanity. If your nostalgic for the late 90’s in New York, I feel you, yeah, give the Laddio CD a spin its kind of fun.


— William Wheaton    2006-10-22 19:51    #