The Luyas
Too Beautiful to Work (Dead Oceans)
By Katherine Hoffert
Published: February 22nd, 2011 | 7:00am
Hailing from Montreal, the Luyas—Jessie Stein, Mathieu Charbonneau, Pietro Amatro, and Stefan Scheider—have all the trappings of their hometown sound: outside-the-box instrumentation, grand brush strokes, and collaborators galore including Sarah Neufeld on violin, Colin Stetson on sax and clarinet, and Owen Pallett arranging strings. Yet, the quartet's new album, Too Beautiful to Work, is far more Brave New World than Arcade Fire. Underpinned by a certain cerebral, retro-futuristic quality, it occupies the hallucinogenic dream-state of Aldous Huxley's soma.
Like soma, the sounds on the album are a vacation from convention. French horns are distorted, drums sound like shattering glass, repetition is used as a melodic device, and a plunky, minor piano chord effect is produced by Stein's custom-made Moodswinger—a 12-string, three-bridged electric zither. This makes for a wonderfully immersive experience, especially on “Tiny Head” with its weary atmospheres, vintage effects, and Stein's blissful vocals.
As the foreboding “Canary” gives way to the upbeat space shuffle “Spherical Mattress,” the album really takes on the disjointed feel of a dream, and it works. “Cold Canada” marks another important shift into more recognizable song structure. As the album winds to a close, melodies grow more prominent, sounds become easier to identify, and the sobering line “Like working at a bank” snaps listeners back to reality. By the final track (though titled “Seeing Things”), the hallucinogenic feel is gone, but the Luyas have proved themselves in full control of a vast imagination.
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The Luyas official site
The Luyas MySpace page
Dead Oceans Records
Issue #44
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