{"product_id":"loka-passing-place","title":"Loka - Passing Place","description":"\u003cp\u003ePassing Place…\"somewhere to stop and reflect on past events, draw a line under them, and move on…\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nStrictly Kev (DJ Food) \"The new album is beautiful it seems to exist in a\n space and time that I can’t place. I hear shades of jazz, classical, \nbrass band of course, that conjures up images of Britain but there are \nalso strains of medieval folk music and even radiophonic synth work\".\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nLoka, Ninja Tune’s cult psychedelicists, purveyors of cinematic music \nthat disturbs and troubles and intrigues rather than comforts, return \nwith a new album, \u003cem\u003ePassing Place\u003c\/em\u003e. With many acts finding considerable \ncritical acclaim in the music world right now through adventures in the \nouter reaches of psychedelia\/jazz\/classical, it's worth remembering that\n Loka have been ploughing this field with stunning results ever since \ntheir debut track on NInja Tunes 10th birthday compilation \u003cem\u003eXen Cuts\u003c\/em\u003e in\n 2000 when they emerged from the same fertile alt-Liverpool scene as Pop\n Levi, Zukanican and Super Numeri. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe debut album proper was \u003cem\u003eFire \nShepherds\u003c\/em\u003e in 2006. Since that album, co-founder Karl Webb left Loka, \nleaving Mark Kyriacou to carry the banner. Mark re-grouped with members \nof the live Loka band (Tom Sumnall – bass, Ged Hawksworth – drums, \nCatherine Norman – keyboards and Ray Dickaty - sax) and went about \nsketching out ideas later to become \u003cem\u003ePassing Place\u003c\/em\u003e. The initial sketches \nwere made in 2008 in a rented rehearsal space in the old Big Issue \nbuilding in Liverpool. These sketches were then taken to \nThighpaulsandra’s (of Julian Cope, Spiritualized and Coil fame) Aeriel \nStudios in the depths of rural south west Wales for colouring in. \nThighpaulsandra played an integral part to the making of the album as he\n engineered, co-produced and assisted in the scoring out of the brass \nband layers. Once the foundations were recorded the additional layers \nwere added over the following year. The album was mixed and completed \nback at Aeriel Studios and then subsequently mastered by the legendary \nKevin Metcalfe. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe result is their most confident and cinematic album yet. Less \nclaustrophobic and inward than before, the new album has a wide-screen, \nrolling hills vista feel to it, perhaps most beautifully realised with \nAnglesey’s brass ensemble Seindorf Beaumaris Band on instrumental tracks\n such as \"The Art Of Burning Bridges,\" \"Exit\" and \"Sound Stars Make\". \n\"Passing Place\" also showcases great use of vocals too to augment their \nconsiderable instrumental nous; main single \"Sam Star\" sounds like \nBroadcast after munching an acid blotter and staring at a Boyle Family \nlight show featuring the voice of Eleanor Mante and Nikos Papanagiotou \non drums. The dark motorik groove of \"The Beauty In Darkness\" and \n\"Temporary External\" both feature vocals by the Columbian singer Lido \nPimienta and brass layers once again by the Seindorf Beaumaris Band, \nwith the latter song coming on like the soundtrack to an anticipatory \nbiopic of Robert Wyatt, made while he was still a school boy. There is a\n lot of top-level musicianship on show on \"Passing Place\". Take the \nsection \"As The Tower Falls\" and \"The Tower\", which share a certain \njazz\/rock high-energy propulsion with that of label-mates Jaga Jazzist, \nand shows Loka can do varying tempos effectively during the course a \nfull-length. It is an album seeped in reflection, but containing a \nwide-eyed thinking of the days to come. Welcome to the timeless world of\n Loka.\n\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ninja Tune","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":62602649206943,"sku":"ZENCD175","price":10.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Download (MP3)","offer_id":62904737726623,"sku":"ZENDNL175","price":5.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Download (WAV)","offer_id":62904737759391,"sku":"ZENDNL175W","price":7.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0493\/8563\/5999\/files\/passing-place-main.jpg?v=1793903010","url":"https:\/\/merch.ninjatune.net\/products\/loka-passing-place","provider":"Ninja Tune","version":"1.0","type":"link"}