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Sunday, April 7, 2019

Loomings - Hey Weirdo!



It’s been four years since I’ve listened to the sound of Loomings. Since their formation in 2012 in Strasbourg, France, I’ve first became aware of their music by accident when I listened to one of their tracks from the AltrOck bandcamp website on their debut album entitled, Everyday Mythology. Their music was this cross between Frank Zappa, Gentle Giant, the Rock In Opposition movement, and a little bit of The Residents, Univers Zero, and Present.

When I listened to their 2015 debut release, it was like opening up this door by discovering that the term “Prog” is more than just a four letter word. Jacopo Costa keeps the Loomings juice strong by making sure the band members have enough of them inside their body to launch another full scale assault on their follow-up this year entitled, Hey Weirdo!

The album is on the Soleil Mutant label, which is a sub-label of Soleil Zeuhl. And their second release shows that they’ve brought more challenges for Loomings to get more of the temperatures increased and the flaming fires burn even more! Listening to Hypnotic, the drums like they’ve opened the doors for the piano and vocals between Maria Denami and Clara Weil taking turns with some spiritual guidance as if the instruments have come to life to honor the work of the late great John Coltrane.

Not to mention the surreal vocals that go from area to another. The piano has some strong resemblance of Magma’s Stoah before the synths come in as everything increases to bring the inmates from the mental intuition’s going buck wild before the bass increases as the sounds of the Avant-Pop genre comes kicking in.

It was quite unexpectedly, but Loomings can bring the different genres and put them into this giant blender. They’re letting the listener know that isn’t any rules, but they can break them. One by one. The Slap has some incredible horn sections. Followed by the Bass Guitar sharing a melody with the saxes with some funky grooves for the xylophone as it goes into a crossover of Beat-Poetry turned Trip-Hop momentum as the rising vocals from Maria and Clara come crushing down like a battering ram swinging at the doors, hardcore!

The voices go into some territorial houses as if Loomings channel both The Residents and their nod to Kerry Minnear’s keyboards and walking into the hotel of The Grand Wazoo’s suite that makes it one size fitting all to make the cosmik debris inside the room.

All Hail is quite the challenge on the vocal arrangements. I can imagine Jacopo conducting the piece while Nicolas Klee’s bass goes into this Matching Mole-sque walk while Boyny keeps up with the female duo as he, Klee, and Costa fly upwards to a new heaven that is filled with wonderful music that shines brightly with some unexpected turns.

The title-track sees Loomings go into this avant-post-punk for a few seconds and go into this hard rocking mode. Pedicone’s drumming sets up this tidal wave mode as the vibes follow the band members into the Twilight Zone for a sonic-like drive that heads into these parallel universes with some nods to Oingo Boingo. And their hat tipping sections to MoeTar’s music that comes in and showing how much appreciation they have with this incredible band.

The synths that are on To and Fro go into this ‘80s New Wave/Jazz Rock approach before this melodic structure between the vibes and Rhodes play on this loop and then going into some film-noir like sound and then back into the structure of the loop by channeling the Three Friends-era of Gentle Giant. Not only that, but I can imagine both Maria and Clara are honoring the vocal styles of Moorea Dickason.

Cerchi (Including Central Park West) is Loomings chance to take a break from their electric sounds and going into this atonal classical jazz sound. You can just close your eyes and imagine being in the heart of The Big Apple set in the late ‘70s in Black & White. You can imagine being at different seasons, cultures, art museums, and the heart of New York City that will always be there for the rest of time.

This was my second time listening to Loomings’ Hey Weirdo! Jacopo launched a Kickstarter page back in February of this year to raise $3,368 dollars. And they have come a long way. This isn’t just a prog album, but an album that crosses over Jazz, Pop, Contemporary Music, Avant-Rock, Canterbury, Beat-Poetry, and twisting the grapefruit even more with some yummy taste that are delicious and surreal.

If you want to lend your support for Jacopo Costa for bringing Hey Weirdo, please go to the website to bring this to life.


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