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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