Le Loup – Family

Le Loup’s sophomore effort, Family, was released earlier this week. I’m not going to pretend to be too authoritative on the band or the album as I’ve pretty much just come across them today; I had to wikipedia the first sentence.

The tracks I have heard are pretty good, though. My little reconnaissance mission to Wikipedia revealed that they’re from Baltimore, which seems to be a strangely productive city in terms of cultural output of late. Initial impressions will probably remind you of Baltimore anyway; that’s not because their lyrics are concerned with The Wire, but they share more than a passing resemblance to fellow Baltimoreans Animal Collective, there’s the same reverberating, psychedelic, trance-like quality to their music.

It is, however, a little more organic and well, human than some of Animal Collective’s output, there’s little electronic tomfoolery; the songs are constructed largely from the usual arsenal of any rock band, but they still manage to create a sound that is far from typical. Melodically, the songs are sparse but slowly build into something that is larger than the sum of its parts as layers are built on top of one another before the songs eventually reach an understated crescendo and simmer down back from where it started. It’s a lot more understated and less celebratory and frantic than Merriweather which makes it perfect for those long, dark Autumnal evenings.

Gorgeous album art, too.

Check ’em out.