Labradford - Prazision LP

Genre-defining debut gets repackaged and re-mastered

Before honing their sumptuously serene dub-plate take on Ennio Morricone’s sound world, Richmond, Virginia’s Labradford were a far more schizophrenic concern. Back in 1993, the then duo of Carter Brown (keyboards) and Mark Nelson (guitars and vocals) – Robert Donne would join the group on 1995’s A Stable Reference – were still in the process of finessing their signature textures and tones, at the embryonic stages of experimenting with form and drone. Hence, we get the brutal wintry workout of Skyward With Motion and the future-world oddity that is Gratitude.

Remarkably, each sonic sculpture on this album succeeds on its own terms, while providing an indication of where the group was soon to be headed. Already, you can discern the cinematic scope of Nelson’s subdued delay heavy fretwork and hear the fragile atmospheric ambience issued by Brown’s expansive synthetics. Soft Return, a space-rock lullaby with a hymnal core, remains one of the band’s finest ever creations. The seemingly (we still hold out hope, but it’s not looking good) now defunct Labradford would go on to make more consistent and increasingly polished albums, but their hearts were never more firmly attached to their sleeves as on this, their genre-defining debut.

Kranky | KRANK 001

Reviewed by Spencer Grady
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