Labradford have made three stunning albums of post rock soundscapes. Nothing much happens in their music, but they do it brilliantly. Ben had a chat with bassist Robert to try and find out how Labradford do it (that’s create music, not have sex or anything.)

The first time I heard Labradford’s second album ‘A Stable Reference’ I had to stop what I was doing and just sit on my bed. I then had to stop listening to it. It was all a bit too much. However, the second or third time I listened to it I managed to get the whole way through and then sat convinced that this was as far as music was going to go. The noise they make is devoid of any normal form, of anything you can grab on to for safety so instead you are left hanging in some sort of existential abyss thinking “What is this music?”. It expresses something more than most music. Something huge and unexplainable. As I said in my review of their last album last month they sound like the ocean, or gravity, or the fridge at midnight.

They have been closely linked to other post rock luminaries such as Tortoise and Oui but sound completely diffferent from both. Where Tortoise use rhythms and have a jazz like style Labradford just create solid moods that shift and develop through each song. The rhythm is negligible but the melody is always there. “Yeah, we start with a guitar melody and just build from there.” says Robert “We just take it to it’s natural conclusion. It’s not like it’s a conscious thing, rather the songs build themselves.”

When you talk about so called post-rock groups you always imagine them to be plotting their next great conceptual work but, as with Tortoise, Labradford make music that is purely intuitive. It is a case of developing natural moods rather than developing any particular idea. The music Labradford create is just their way of expressing themselves. “I guess our songs do reject traditional song structure but it is just a case of letting our moods develop and letting the sounds develop.”

Labradford started off as a two.piece with Carter Brown on synthesizers and Mark Nelson on guitars, tapes and vocals. They recorded their debut album with that line up. However, for the second album they recruited Robert and released the stunning ‘A Stable Reference’. Since then they have released the third album which features a string player and some beats. “I think we have always developed and I think the third album is a definate progresion from ‘A StableReference’ and we didn’t want to stand still so we did record it slightly differently and try to change the sound.

One of the noticable things about the new album, called just ‘Labradford’, is that the vocals are actually discernible and the melodies are more obvious and in the end it’s not quite such hard work. “Yeah, I think it’s true to say it’s easier to listen to. We did try and record the vocals differently so they are more visible, or maybe hearable. We don’t try and make records that are difficult but I think it’s true to say that they aren’t obvious and you do have to make some effort with them.”

The thing is that the effort is well worth it. The third album is one of my favourites from last year and everytime I listen to it at a decent volume with nothing else to do I get that same feeling that I got when I heard Labradford for the first time; this is truly remarkable music.

Labradford were talking to Ben, in March 1997.