Album Review: Lorn - Ask the Dust

Lorn
Ask The Dust
Rating: Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It

Milwaukee’s Lorn, aka Marcos Ortega, was an anomaly somewhat on Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder label. His debut album Nothing Else really sounded nothing like the rest of the fractured, beat morphing denizens of the Fly Lo school, choosing more direct beats and a slightly more industrial/electro tone to his dense instrumentals. Switching to the more hip hop/breakbeat UK imprint Ninja Tune, Lorn's second album Ask The Dust is a set of dense electronic tracks taking inspiration from John Fante's cult novel of the same name. What that inspiration is supposed to be is a bit of a mystery; Fante's novel about a Depression-era Los Angeles love triangle that ends, rather depressingly, in despair in the middle of the desert, while Lorn's album doesn't necessarily evoke those images and incidents. There is a studied, emotional sort of claustrophobia to these tracks that perhaps provides the links, however, knowing the background to the influences is not particularly necessary to enjoying Ask The Dust. When it comes down to it, what is most important is whether the tracks are any good.

Falling somewhere in-between the ghostly ennui of Burial, the lush soundscapes of Clams Casino, and the glitchy post-dubstep of Mount Kimbie, James Blake, and SBTRKT, Ask The Dust is not an easy record to get one's bearings with at first. Initially, I was disappointed that it lacked the stylistic diversity and, well, hooks of Nothing Else. Nowhere was a track as hauntingly melancholic as "Cherry Moon" or as menacingly thumping as "Automaton?" But where Nothing Else failed for me was that sometimes too many ideas were thrown into the mix, and it came off more of a collection of various singles than a cohesive effort. Ask The Dust feels more like a collection of related tracks, blending themes, textures, and melodies throughout into a heady mix of dark, dense electronica.

Things launch to the thunderous beats of "Mercy,"



which leads into first single "Ghosst," a heavy slab of grinding basslines and droning synths.



Like "Ghosst" the best tracks on Ask The Dust are the more structured ones with a more solid melody and mood. A slow, methodical beat underscored by rumbling vocals and air raid siren synths highlights "Diamond," "Chhurch" uses stop start synths and clomping percussion while sneaking in a lonely flute synth melody, and "Weigh Me Down" highlights a jittery, nervous set of drum programming that rubs up against a paranoid, manipulated vocal. The remainder of Ask The Dust goes back and forth between atmospheric, interstitial instrumentals ("This" and "Everything Is Violence"), and more beat heavy compositions ("The Gun" and "Dead Dogs"), giving the album a nice, steady pace and flow, but which also sort of makes the album seem a little less diverse.

There are really no bad tracks here at all, but at the same token, nothing really jumps out as a "single," or that one track you have to hear over and over again. Despite its lofty ambitions, Ask The Dust ultimately is just a solid electronic record that unfortunately needs a little more oomph for it to stand out in this incredible year for electronic records.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.