LAU "Race The Loser"

They're not massively well-known here in Australia, but LAU were one of the stand-outs of this year's Womadelaide Festival during their brief foray to these shores to promote their latest CD release "Race The Loser". This year's BBC Radio 3 Folk Awards have yet again recognised them as the best UK Folk band around, adding to a swag of accolades and awards they have accumulated since their inception in 2004.

What started as three friends sitting around a kitchen table in Edinburgh to play a few tunes together on fiddle, guitar and squeezebox has developed into something quite extraordinary. Their previous studio CD's "Lightweights and Gentlemen" and "Arc Light" established Messrs Drever, Green and O'Rourke as musicians' musicians with a tendency to push the envelope and bring elements of Jazz and Improvisation to the world of Folk.

But it is their teaming up with legendary Nashville-born Producer Tucker Martine (noted for his work with Sufjan Stevens, The Decemberists, R.E.M, Abigail Washburn and Laura Veirs) and the incorporation of sound-effects, tricks and techniques learnt through a collaboration with ambient electro pioneer Adem which have taken this CD to a whole new level. As Martin Green (who now somehow simultaneously plays accordion, keyboards and manages loops and sound effects in the live show) explains
"We learned an awful lot from Adem. Folk music can be quite conservative at times, but he worked in such a different way it opened a lot of things up and gave us permission to do anything. We have these additional tools and writing compositions that include laptop, effects and loops has become part of the process."

"Race The Loser" has more changes of pace and atmospheric flourishes than its predecessors. Aidan O'Rourke's fiddle is multi-tracked to great effect and Green's keyboards brought more to the fore in the mix. Kris Drever's Guitar and Vocals are used more sparingly and to much greater effect than ever. The somewhat sparse opener "Saint Monday" paints a sombre picture of a post-industrial wasteland. This gives way to a driving "Far from Portland" that - through it's use of percussive sound effects and a sonic meltdown - is unlike anything Lau have done before and is totally engaging for it's whole 8 minute duration.

"The Bird That Winds The Spring", "Save The Bees", "Torsa" and "Throwing Pennies" are all the sorts of Lau songs / tunes that you find impossible to get out of your head after listening to them a couple of times. But it is as a Live band that Lau really come into their own. In full flight, they are quite epic to behold - virtuosic and experimental in the extreme. Their mutual musical understanding and respect have created a unit that leaves audiences spellbound. Roll on the day when they get back here for a proper visit to share their awe-inspiring talents with a wider Australian audience. In the meantime the CD's will have to do.