The three-way ‘Los Angeles’ collaboration was born out of a curiosity which just wouldn’t die. Made up of two of the most illustrious and inventive drummers of the post-punk era, The Cure’s Lol Tolhurst, and Budgie from Siouxsie & The Banshees and The Creatures, along with stellar producer and multi-instrumentalist Garret ‘Jacknife’ Lee, this unlikely alt-supergroup have spent the last four years spiriting up one of the most extraordinary albums to appear in 2023. Perusing the tracklist, with its guest credits for, amongst others, LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, Bobby Gillespie, Civil Rights avant-gardist Lonnie Holley, Starcrawler wildchild Arrow de Wilde and The Edge from U2, you may rightly wonder just what the 13-track long-player holds in store. The answer: a hard-hitting and compulsively exploratory 55-minute electronic mindscrew, founded on unrivalled rhythmic expertise, fleshed out with an armoury of synths, guitars (Jacknife’s forte) and supplementary percussion, often overlaid with elite-class strings and brass, then universally twisted, manipulated and quite masterfully sculpted by Lee, with his super-producer’s hat on. The album will be available as a double LP, with an etching on side B of volume 2, printed inner sleeve. Tracks: 1. This Is What It Is (To Be Free) (with Bobby Gillespie) 2. Los Angeles (with James Murphy) 3. Uh Oh (with Arrow de Wilde and Mark Bowen) 4. Ghosted at Home (with Bobby Gillespie) 5. Train With No Station (with The Edge) 6. Bodies (with Lonnie Holley and Mary Lattimore) 7. Everything and Nothing 8. Travel Channel (with Pan Amsterdam) 9. Country of the Blind (with Bobby Gillespie) 10. The Past (Being Eaten) 11. We Got To Move (with Isaac Brock) 12. Noche Oscura (with The Edge) 13. Skins (with James Murphy)
