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10"
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MELO 087EP
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Following on your work as one of the twin pioneers of Glaswegian radge-rock in Arab Strap can't be an easy task. Aidan clearly has had other ideas, quite different ideas, and most of them comprise his solo project release via his alter ego, Lucky Pierre. In these recordings, L. Pierre pays an affectionate tribute to the wear and tear of overplayed vinyl; the hiss, scratch and pop of records long loved but worn down. It's the sound of survival, the echoes of a life lived well; moth-eaten music of resilience, of beauty and backbone.
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2LP
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MELO 081LP
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Double LP version. Comes with a digital download card. Across his many projects past and present, it's under the moniker of L. Pierre that Aidan Moffat has perhaps best opened up the bare bones of his thirst for sonic exploration. The Island Come True is Moffat's fourth album as L. Pierre and is a work assembled from the vast cavern of his assembled field recordings and samples -- a collage that works as a sonic patchwork of the artist's own mind. A popular lyrical raconteur whether as one-half of Arab Strap, writing under his own name or when collaborating with Bill Wells -- as on last year's "Scottish Album Of The Year" award-winner Everything's Getting Older -- it's as this incarnation where the true extent of his musical eclecticism is revealed. As such, the album is as a dreamscape, with fragments of classical works, drum samples, instructional speeches and, in a link back to his last album, recordings of nature. Electronics elements previously employed on past albums have been discarded, the album in its entirety consisting only of these found sounds. The record is overridden by the hissing of tape tracks and drones, and "sadness" is a word that could readily be used to describe big sections of Island Come True, a fine line trodden between soothing warmth and bleaker depths throughout. Song titles delve into the extraordinary, the surreal and, more often than not, the sinister; "KAB 1340" is the name of the radio station being listened to in John Carpenter's The Fog, "The Grief That Does Not Speak" is taken from a speech in Macbeth, "Tulpa" is a Buddhist term for a physical object brought about purely by the power of the mind. For all the wonderful work that he's put out in his various guises, it is arguably as L.Pierre where he's at his most beguiling and unexplained, collecting and sculpting these pieces of aural history together for reasons that he never quite tells us.
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CD
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MELO 081CD
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Across his many projects past and present, it's under the moniker of L. Pierre that Aidan Moffat has perhaps best opened up the bare bones of his thirst for sonic exploration. The Island Come True is Moffat's fourth album as L. Pierre and is a work assembled from the vast cavern of his assembled field recordings and samples -- a collage that works as a sonic patchwork of the artist's own mind. A popular lyrical raconteur whether as one-half of Arab Strap, writing under his own name or when collaborating with Bill Wells -- as on last year's "Scottish Album Of The Year" award-winner Everything's Getting Older -- it's as this incarnation where the true extent of his musical eclecticism is revealed. As such, the album is as a dreamscape, with fragments of classical works, drum samples, instructional speeches and, in a link back to his last album, recordings of nature. Electronics elements previously employed on past albums have been discarded, the album in its entirety consisting only of these found sounds. The record is overridden by the hissing of tape tracks and drones, and "sadness" is a word that could readily be used to describe big sections of Island Come True, a fine line trodden between soothing warmth and bleaker depths throughout. Song titles delve into the extraordinary, the surreal and, more often than not, the sinister; "KAB 1340" is the name of the radio station being listened to in John Carpenter's The Fog, "The Grief That Does Not Speak" is taken from a speech in Macbeth, "Tulpa" is a Buddhist term for a physical object brought about purely by the power of the mind. For all the wonderful work that he's put out in his various guises, it is arguably as L.Pierre where he's at his most beguiling and unexplained, collecting and sculpting these pieces of aural history together for reasons that he never quite tells us.
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CD
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MELO 045CD
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This is the third full-length release from Arab Strap's Aidan Moffat. Written and recorded before the Arab Strap breakup was finalized, Dip explores a quieter, more contemplative side of Moffat's musical personality. A giant sideways leap from the critically-acclaimed Hypnogogia (2002) and Touchpool (2004), Dip finds Moffat eschewing the drum loops and effects that characterized his previous recordings in favor of a more organic, live sound, with a specially-assembled group of Alan Barr (cello), Stevie Jones (double bass) and Allan Wylie (trumpet) complimenting Moffat on drums, keyboards, percussion and harmonium. The result is an album that takes us on a journey through the full range of human emotions, from "Ache"'s morose, mournful strings to the frantic, jesterly "Hike." Ending as it begins, with the sound of the waves crashing against the shore, there's a sense of oneness to the album, as if it could play forever as a song cycle. This, says Moffat, is because Dip was conceived as a whole album, rather than a collection of odds and ends. So this is it; the sound of one of our generation's great chroniclers of urban squalor and messy relationships contemplating the mysteries of Mother Nature and delivering a dreamlike, immersive album as a result. But it's not necessarily an avenue Moffat will revisit any time soon.
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LP
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MELO 045LP
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LP version. This is the third full-length release from Arab Strap's Aidan Moffat. Written and recorded before the Arab Strap breakup was finalized, Dip explores a quieter, more contemplative side of Moffat's musical personality. A giant sideways leap from the critically-acclaimed Hypnogogia (2002) and Touchpool (2004), Dip finds Moffat eschewing the drum loops and effects that characterized his previous recordings in favor of a more organic, live sound, with a specially-assembled group of Alan Barr (cello), Stevie Jones (double bass) and Allan Wylie (trumpet) complimenting Moffat on drums, keyboards, percussion and harmonium. The result is an album that takes us on a journey through the full range of human emotions, from "Ache"'s morose, mournful strings to the frantic, jesterly "Hike." Ending as it begins, with the sound of the waves crashing against the shore, there's a sense of oneness to the album, as if it could play forever as a song cycle. This, says Moffat, is because Dip was conceived as a whole album, rather than a collection of odds and ends. So this is it; the sound of one of our generation's great chroniclers of urban squalor and messy relationships contemplating the mysteries of Mother Nature and delivering a dreamlike, immersive album as a result. But it's not necessarily an avenue Moffat will revisit any time soon.
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CD
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MELO 027CD
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Touchpool is the second album from Lucky Pierre aka Aidan Moffat, one half of Arab Strap. L Pierre's debut album Hypnogogia, described by the artist as "music to fall asleep to," was released in September 2002 and greeted with critical acclaim from the dance fraternity (Gilles Peterson and Nick Warren) as well as the rock monthlies and broadsheet press. Touchpool provides more of the same grand, sampledelic, atmospheric strings interwoven with light and dark only a member of Arab Strap could bring. Where Hypnogogia was a collection of Moffat's spare studio hours messing with samples, drum machines and loops over a period of around 5 years, Touchpool was formed and recorded in one unified whole. This time the formula is similar, with drum machines and orchestral loops providing the backbone. The main difference is the addition of live musicians which makes for a much fuller and more epic listening experience. Arab Strap's other half, Malcolm Middleton plays guitar and bass on "Baby Breeze," with Dave MacGowan and Allan Wylie from Arab Strap's live incarnation contributing pedal steel and trumpet.
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LP
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MELO 027LP
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7"
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MELO 023EP
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"Lucky Pierre has, Puff-Daddy-style, changed his name for this single and forthcoming album. He will now be known as L Pierre. The previous meaning was a bit rude (go figure) and the lad's gonna be turning 30 soon so a more mature L Pierre is what we have. Aidan (Moffat, one half of Arab Strap and one full portion of L Pierre) felt there were two halves to the song so he decided quite simply to cut them in half for this single. Taken from the forthcoming new album Touchpool (released in July 2004) 'Total Horizontal' is the longest track on the album weighing in at ten minutes fourty four seconds. The first half is is what you'll be familiar with -- the trademark epic samples over drum machine loops. The second half has more live instrumentation (guitars and trumpets) -- the main difference between the new album and Hypnogogia."
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