At this point in the calendar over the recent past, I've generally been preoccupied on here with mapping the slow countdown of my favourite albums of each particular twelve months. Invariably and also inevitably, some records come to my notice during that time, either new releases or something I hadn't particularly picked up on earlier in the year. Things that really deserve to be in the chart I'm laying out day by day but there's just no room on the ark for them.
Luca,the first solo album from Alex Maas, seems destined for that particular category in 2021. It's a radiant record, quite different from anything I've heard from Maas's band Black Angels who have been putting out mindfuck, shaded psych punk records drawing on the legacy of The Velvet Underground, The 13th Floor Elevators amd Suicide for the best part of fifteen years now.
Nothing wrong with that at all. I've loved many of the records that they've put out. But I'd say that Luca charts altogether different and probably more interesting and original territory from anything I've heard previously from this particular quarter. Because Luca is an altogether compelling and haunting record, something which would certainly have featured in my Top Twenty had I heard it earlier in 2020 rather than it being released last Friday, clearly too late in the year for the general acclaim it deserves.
It slows the mood appreciably from the Angels usual stoned, propulsive drone. Luca is possibly best described as perfect seance music. Orienting itself as a liquid window between the known and the unknown (if you'll forgive my conceit),. it sustains the mood it establishes early quite impeccably over the course of its brief ten track run. Nothing outstays its welcome.
Comparison points are immediate. Broadcast, Portishead, Big Star's Sister Lovers, Jim Sullivan's incomparable underground classic UFO. Black Angels standpoints Doors and Velvets hover somehwere in the background but Maas is moving into a fresh realm here and you can't but applaud his bravura.
It may not be quite there. It certainly doesn't compare to UFO which I've just listened to again and should really be in every collection. Difficult to say how good Luca is after a couple of good listens but it definitely has a slow, distinctive drag and trust me it's better than Dylan's new one. Why would you put yourself through that, when you could enjoy this instead.
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