Limited edition clear vinyl. Highly recommended. Nicely priced. One copy only. By virtue of their frontman, The National have always claimed their musical ancestry in the likes Hüsker Dü and The Smiths, from namechecking Bona Drag and The Cramps to all but inhaling the melodic smoke trails of Meet Me In The Bathroom-era New York of the late 1990s. If the Cincinnati rockers came to embody the self-loathing hangover and betterment rituals of the city’s debauchery – they, the future sonic librarians circling the buffet at the Plant Records afterparty – LNZNDRF swaps the bathroom for the Muster Station with their second self-titled record: a navel-gazing, meditative, pedal-staring sister act, richly experimental within its blissed-out kosmische framework. Formed of The National’s Scott and Bryan Devendorf, with Benjamin Lanz (The National, Beirut) on vocals, guitars and synths, and Aaron Arntz (Beirut, Grizzly Bear) on synths and piano, LNZNDRF leap further away from their origins than any of the band’s plentiful side-projects to date. Opener ‘The Xeric Steppe’ bounds from piano arpeggios buried deep in the mix to chugging sandstorm synths – a slow build into the disarmingly addictive noise-pop of Nowhere-era Ride on ‘Brace Yourself’. Its eight tracks are custom-built escapism, through Beta Band-style jams and heady psych to the telescopic electronic rock that rung dystopia from the tea towels of Can, Neu!, and early krautrock.
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