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ARTIST
TITLE
Our Inventions
FORMAT
LP

LABEL
CATALOG #
MORR 098LP MORR 098LP
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
4/27/2010

LP version with printed inner sleeve and MP3 download coupon. This is the fourth full-length album by Germany's Lali Puna. More than half a decade has elapsed since the release of Faking The Books (MORR 044CD/LP), but the band's impact on the climate of electronic rock music remains palpable. Along with sister-group The Notwist, this Weilheim quartet have helped map out the musical landscape for modern, experimentally-minded pop music, and Our Inventions finds Lali Puna continuing to push the frontiers of their medium. "Rest Your Head" serves as a perfectly poised re-introduction to the band and all they've become. Initiated by waves of glassy pulsations and warm, swelling synths, the song has the feel of a reverse-lullaby -- gently winding its way through reposeful melodies, guided by the welcoming whisper of Trebeljahr's vocal until the final third kicks in with drum machine hits. While Faking The Books, with its vibrant riffs and extroverted tendencies, had the sound of a record begging to be played live, Our Inventions exhibits the hallmarks of an album spun from intensive studio-bound introspection. Two of the most explosive and ebullient songs here -- "Remember" and "Everything Is Always" -- confirm so much of what's special about Lali Puna: all the elements are at once precision-engineered and delivered with absolute heartfelt conviction; perhaps never before have such jubilant pop hooks been so meticulously and fastidiously crafted, yet you can always hear the soul behind these machines. The final song is a collaboration with the Yellow Magic Orchestra's Yukihiro Takahashi. The version appearing here is an alternate rendering of the track that appeared on Takahashi's Page By Page. The sublime, virtuoso electronic arrangements of Our Inventions directly lock onto the record's recurrent key themes, depicting a world inundated with technology and consumed by a fixation on progress -- simultaneously passing commentary on this state of affairs and overcoming it. Members: Valerie Trebeljahr (keyboards, vocals); Christoph Brandner (also of Tied & Tickled Trio) (drums); Christian Heiß (keyboards); Markus Acher (The Notwist) (keyboards).