Labradford - Fixed::content

Previous Labradford albums have been compared to "the fridge at midnight" and "the sound of gravity." Listening to their new album Fixed::Content induces the same dreamy languor and placid contentment that a superb massage brings. The band has been around since the early '90s and has attempted to redefine itself with each release. Although Fixed::Content does not pack the ambient punch of Labradford's last full-length, E Luxo So, it is languid pleasure nonetheless.

Immediately noticeable on Fixed::Content is how stripped down it is. It clocks in under 37 minutes and features only four tracks, in which the same few chords are repeated with minimal changes. We are left only with Carter Brown's vintage synthesizers, organs, and electric piano, Mark Nelson's Duane Eddy-style guitar, and Robert Donne's four and six string basses. It foregoes even the orchestral instrumentation and dulcimer of E Luxo So and Mi Media Naranja.

Because the band is so successful at lulling its audience, it's a challenge to listen to this album and provide incisive commentary at the same time. Yes, there are surprises here, but they are small and easily overlooked. These songs sound like muscles relaxing bit by bit. Skin being kneaded and then kneaded again. The calm resonance of breathing. Vertebrae falling into perfect alignment.

Nelson's slide guitar dominates, but the surrounding electronic sounds, synths, and subdued drums showcase it to perfection. The first song, "twenty," starts with electronic pops and fizzles, meanders through labyrinth underground caverns filled with wavering greenish light, and ends with a muffled helicopter drone, by far the most dissonant sound on the record. "up to pizmo" appropriates a house bass thump and uses it to frame a repetitive, soothing guitar melody, completely recontextualizing the house element in the process. The third track, "david," flows easily out of the second. It builds gradually upon a simple chord structure until the instruments give way to a magnificent, distorted static that sounds like the ocean but eventually succumbs to a menacing series of electronic drips and fizzles. The final song, "wien," is by far the most compelling. Its melodic complexity and shuddering bass-drum combination outshine the other songs on the album. Although E Luxo So is a more intricate and challenging listen, I'll come back to Fixed::Content every time I need a musical backrub. (Kranky) —Bidisha Banerjee

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