...Album Of The Month...Bristol's scuzzy post-rock charmers return to Twisted Nerve with an overdue follow-up to their acclaimed and eponymous 2008 debut. Sensitively mixed by former Portishead player Jim Barr, 'Luftwaffe Pond' finds the group at a cool junction of Indie-pop, '60s psyche, Krautrock and suave Jazz influences. "This unlikely group of pond-life obsessives formed in the confines of a Bristolian industrial lift in 2002. The spawn of the Liftmen's newt-ridden nucleus begs inadequate comparison with the likes of Prag Vec, Tortoise, Thee Headcoatees and Young Marble Giants but sounds a little bit like none of the above. Consisting of core members Rasha Shaheen, Neil Smith, Jamie Whitby-Coles and Jesse D Vernon, a fully formed The Liftmen first knocked on Twisted Nerve’s door in 2005, making their label debut on the pocket sized second-class- tome ‘Now Is The Winter Of Our Discount Tents’ compilation, and have remained a firm fixture of the label's roster ever since. ‘Luftwaffe Pond’ sees The Liftmen step out of the shaft and into the light, presenting eleven new shapes in amphibious rock music.
‘Troubled Teens’ is a smart, scuttling intro about religious zealots trying to entice the vulnerable: there are echoes throughout of those fertile times when punk’s brusque energy found its way to more subtle timbres via bands like Gang Of Four, The Bush Tetras and Jozef K, while at points an almost jazzy serenity descends recalling the Chicago school of the nineties... yet just as often this is gleefully ruptured by fuzzedout motorik detours and Deerhoofian thrusts into sonic overdrive. It is those moments that are gloriously expanded upon in their blistering live shows, where they are often joined by fellow Bristolian SJ Esau on sundry electronic devices."
The Liftmen - Two Kranes from Droptunemedia on Vimeo.
