LEILA: U&I (Warp Records)

themilkman on Feb 21st 2012 01:32 am

Leila: U&I

LEILA
U&I
WARP220
Warp Records 2012
13 Tracks. 45mins54secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP | DLD US: CD | LP | DLD Boomkat: CD | LP | DLD iTunes: DLD

Leila stands as quite a unique artist on the music scene today, and has done so for nearly fifteen years with uncompromising fervour and vision. Born in Iran in 1971, Leila Arab emigrated to the UK with her parents as the Islamic revolution swept across her native land in 1979. Some years later, she became part of Björk’s touring band in the early nineties and started recording and releasing music a couple of years later, but it is with her first album, Like Weather, published in 1998 on Rephlex that she really made an impression. The album combined stunning oblique electronic instrumentals and complex pop songs, sung by a host of vocal contributors, one of which, Lucas Santucci, has since become a regular feature on her records. Following a second album, Courtesy Of Choice (2000, XL), Leila appeared to put her solo career on hold as she joined Björk once again and contributed, notably, to the Icelandic’s soundtrack to Matthew Barney’s Drawing Restraint 9. She returned with a new album, Blood, Looms & Blooms, new vocalists (Specials founding member Terry Hall, former Tricky collaborator Martina Topley-Bird, Khemahl) alongside regulars, and a new home, Warp, in 2008.

Leila’s fourth album, here second for Warp, marks a sharp turn into much drier and more corrosive mutant electro pop. Continue Reading »

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VARIOUS ARTISTS: Warp20 (Box Set) / Warp20 (Recreated) / Warp20 (Chosen) (Warp Records)

themilkman on Sep 17th 2009 07:20 pm

Various Artists: Warp20 (Box Set) Various Artists: Warp20 (Recreated) Various Artists: Warp20 (Chosen)

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Warp20 (Box Set) / Warp20 (Recreated) / Warp20 (Chosen)
WARP20.0 / WARP201 / WARP 202
Warp Records 2009
– / 21 Tracks / 24 Tracks. – / 99mins13secs / 127mins18secs

Warp20 (Box Set)
Icon: arrow Boomkat: BX

Warp20 (Recreated)
Icon: arrow Amazon UK: CD Amazon US: CD Boomkat: CD iTunes: DLD

Warp20 (Chosen)
Icon: arrow Amazon UK: CD Amazon US: CD Boomkat: CD iTunes: DLD

LFO. Three metallic blue letters, straddled by a ghostly shape, set on a black background. Three letters that changed things forever. The year was 1991, I was browsing through the new arrivals in my local records store, and the Designers Republic artwork of LFO’s Frequencies was standing out from the blur, calling out for my attention. An hour or so later, I was left baffled by a record which I was struggling to understand. On one side, the lush flow and shattering bass of LFO or Simon From Sydney irresistibly titillated my appetite for crisp evocative electronics, on the other, I had never experienced anything quite as bare as Mentok 1 or We Are Back. This album bore its influences on its sleeve, literally, and it took a few listens to ‘get it’. But ‘get it’ I did. More than I could have ever wished for. I was hooked. Not only on LFO, but also on Warp.

The brainchild of Steve Beckett and the late Rob Mitchell, who founded the label twenty years ago in the former metallurgic city of Sheffield, Warp found itself at a crossroad between the dying acid scene and the nascent UK techno/electronica movements Continue Reading »

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LEILA: Blood, Looms & Blooms (Warp Records)

themilkman on Jul 3rd 2008 12:39 am

Leila: Blood, Looms & Bloom

LEILA
Blood, Looms & Blooms
WARP167
CD
Warp Records 2008
14 Tracks. 54mins56secs

Leila Arab first appeared on Richard D. James’s Rephlex just over ten years ago with a handful of EPs and a stunning debut album, Like Weather, which gathered considerable praises from the press and got the Londoner’s quirky blend of electronica and pop noticed for all the right reasons. Firmly in charge of assembling little gems drenched in bleeps and glitch, with just a little hand from lord Aphex on post production, Leila brought on board a host of contributors to assume vocal duties, including sister Roya and long term friend Luca Santucci. After moving to XL Recordings, Leila and her crew reconvened for her sophomore missive, Courtesy Of Choice, released in 2000. Continue Reading »

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