(Experimental, Post-Rock) Larsen - La Fever Lit - 2008, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

La Fever Lit is Larsen’s eighth album in 13 years of activity, it is also first studio album since 2006 Seies, after the double live Larsen & Friends CD/DVD set Abeceda. Also being released at the same time is a deluxe Larsen live LP titled LLL.
La Fever Lit features the legendary dubdiva/post-punk-cabaret icon, from Crass to On-u sound via NWW, Coil & C93, Little Annie aka Annie Anxiety Badnez.
Musically, La Fever Lit opens slowly, intentionally & deliberately. La Fever Lit could be considered the most focused Larsen record yet but at the same time it's also their most experimental and floating. Much of the material on La Fever Lit was composed for architecture, having been written to be played in Torino's landmark Mole Antonelliano which is now a national film museum. Performing from the elicoidal stair inside the huge dome of this futuristic building, Larsen spread out massive revererations of sound and bouncing lights upon the audience. Somehow, these bouncing lights are a big part of Larsen's new sound.
Cinematic pop, illuminating rhythms, musical weightlessness and the nocturnal noire narrative style of Annie Anxiety.
Larsen delivers one of their most unique musical offerings but it's ultimately Annie Anxiety who defines the album. Having seen Larsen live a few years back she offered to sing and La Fever Lit was the perfect record for her vocal companionship. Her lyrics, her moods and her delivery, especially on Lefrak City Limits, deliver the listener to an old and twisted reality, drowned in melancholy, where characters lives suddenly make sense if only for a few suspended seconds framed in frozen time. All of this happens while Julia Kent delivers her most beautiful offerings to the Larsen sound and Marco Milanesio's production is so in tune with Larsen's sound that he is able to extraxt the textures that their music is built on.
Every listen brings you a little closer to La Fever Lit.

Mirroring the economy, Larsen appear to be undergoing a bit of a recession following many years of seemingly unstoppable growth. On their difficult 8th album (just ask Black Sabbath about that), there is less consistency than there has been in their previous releases. There are still some fantastic moments on this album (not least some wonderful parts with guest vocalist Little Annie Bandez) but they are tempered by some lacklustre pieces which unfortunately drag the album down a notch.
Some of the tracks feel like Larsen are just coasting, the opening piece “Dear Furry Window” sounds like a poor cousin to far better tracks on Play and Seies. This is immediately followed by the marginally better “Tu Ark,” which features some retro sounding synth action which does not totally fit with Larsen’s aesthetic. There is some excellent theremin playing later on in the piece that reaffirms my faith in these Italians. However, it is only by the middle of the album that things really get cooking with “Partial” which features Julia Kent on cello. This sounds like the obvious evolution of the sounds Larsen (and friends) explored on ABECEDA but with a more aggressive edge; Kent sounds like she is trying to saw through her strings.
Little Annie makes an appearance on three songs which all cover very similar territory with varying degrees of success. “Lefrak City Limits” combines all of Larsen’s best elements (a solid, simple melody, drones and powerful drums) and still leaves space for Little Annie to do her thing. Some of the lines are clunky and it goes on a bit long; by the end it feels like it has been playing forever. The other two songs with Little Annie work, “Flower” in particular, shows that the combination of her voice, her lyrics and Larsen’s music has the potential for great things.
After so many strong albums and collaborations, I was let down with La Fever Lit. While by no means a bad album, La Fever Lit does not have the same instant joy that I got with pretty much every album from Play onwards. On first listen, I was downright disappointed with this album but I must admit that it has been growing on me more with each listen. Perhaps it will grow on me over time but as it stands now, this is an uncharacteristically mediocre album from a band capable of far better.
Written by John Kealy
Sunday, 01 February 2009

Those who have been following Larsen's career will not be surprised by anything they hear on this album, if only because they've learned by now not to be surprised. The Italian quartet's eighth album is a fascinating collage of sounds designed originally to be played in the unique acoustic space of Torino's Mole Antonelliana, which was originally constructed as a synagogue and is now the home of the National Museum of Cinema. The program opens and closes with similarly lovely, almost Brian Eno-esque tracks that start with a drone foundation and then add layer upon glistening layer of guitars and pitched percussion until they shimmer with beauty. In between them is a collection of seven tracks that are constructed somewhat differently: more rhythmic for the most part, and many of them consisting of a swaying two-chord structure that can hardly be called a "progression." At its best, this approach yields very lovely results: on "Verge," simple lines build upon each other in a bright contrapuntal weave (though the drums seem a bit ham-handed here) and on "Partial" they bring in a cello, which is a nice touch. Other tracks seem to go on a bit longer than their musical ideas can justify, though none is less than attractive. The album's strangest element is the several vocal contributions of Little Annie (aka Annie Anxiety, for you old-school punks), who is at her best when she's at her most declamatory, and not at her best when her voice is being multitracked in 6/8 time -- though her melodic screaming works very well on that particular track. Overall, this makes a strong contribution to Larsen's generally impressive catalog.
Rick Anderson

La Fever Lit is Larsen`s eighth and the press release tells us that much of the music was composed for architecture, having been written to be played in Torino`s landmark Mole Antonelliano - which is now a national film museum.
They certainly have their greatest impact when heard outside of home and familiarity. My first listen was on a stereo in my house, I was interested but at the time the sound was so dense as to be oppressive. On a walk with headphones the music draped the landscape with the heart and eyes of Larsen and opened outwards. The album imbued the landscape with a grandness and immediacy, without the pomposity and heart-on-sleeve emotional claws of what gets called 'Post-Rock' these days.
The nine songs of La Fever Lit breathe a sprawling instrumental drone rock (with a healthy dose of synthesizer sound play) occasionally juxtaposed by the eccentric vocal stylings of La Fever Lit`s most prominent guest, Annie Anxiety Bandez (aka Little Annie). The presence of her half-sung earthy lyrics on three songs is a perfect counterpoint to Larsen`s wide-eyed drift. An album`s worth of these hybrids wouldn`t work, but as Larsen, Annie and producer Marco Milanesio seem to be aware, the album wouldn`t be the new-breed success it is without them. Reading this you might question the concept of this blend but it is not carried off with arrogance or over-confidence: they have struck on something which excites them and reaches beyond their individual boundaries.
Over the Cocteau Twins-like guitar picking of "Lefrak City Limits" Little Annie enunciates and chews the words to the point of sounding aged beyond her years. It is her first appearance and it conveys both a musty bohemianism and futuristic mysticism. Her singing is incredibly textural, she crackles and drawls the line where barbed wire will turn to orchids and poppies into peonies� without obscuring the words as to make them unintelligible. Elsewhere she surprises with a cackling laugh before the swaying sea-sick shanty and nursery rhyming of "T-Song".
Another guest is cellist Julia Kent whose album of looped cello was also issued by Larsen`s label, Important Records. Kent`s album is a profoundly moving and highly recommended. According to the sleeve she only contributes to one track, the churning expanse of "Partial". Her cello grinds in an industrially repetitive swirl while the cymbal heavy drums (although prominent) stick to their task and allow the operatic white-water synth squall to develop a hypnotic stampede. In the press release great credit is given to Kent and Annie. It is obvious why, yet the diverse instrumental talent of the four core members is the essence and moving body of the album, Annie provides a talking head, but this seems natural as the band don`t need their ego`s stroked to compose and perform their music. Their modesty and confidence comes through in the music, much in the way that Do Make Say Think convey a wide-eyed and strong humility.
I feel unable to interrupt many of the songs, which is a quality of listening often lost in the computer age when one can click to any point instantaneously. The sounds on the album are diverse, but it doesn`t sound like they came from a huge battalion of instruments, rather that each member is engaging with his instrument to tease out its emotive possibilities without ignoring the classical approach. The xylophone is not just used to pick out an already existing melody. On the open and broad sweeping closer "Halt" the chimes strike out alone and fragile before the faceless drone warms up and swirls around it. The subtle shift in tone gives the impression of an intrigued child drawing closer to something magical, a feeling also present in the first song "Dear Furry Window".
Many people say that Animal Collective have the ability to re-awaken childlike tendencies, mostly playfulness. Larsen have an equally strong ability to conjure an un-cynical fascination with sound and the world, one that unfolds slowly. To achieve that alongside the age and memory image play of Anxiety Annie is a fine blend which adds up to a life-affirming listen.
David Morris
23 January 2009