Lamb cover

Lamb

Released

The duo Lamb (singer Lou Rhodes, electronic musician Andy Barlow) took trip-hop, drum ’n’ bass, industrial, dub and jazz, creating sparse and shifting tracks that were less self-consciously moody than Portishead and as likely to disorient with sonic illusions than to inspire dancing. Rhodes’ vocals took jazzy, Björk-ian leaps in space, her melodies often following an inscrutable inner logic that only became clear when the choruses landed. “Goreçki,” the hit, was built on a sample from the second movement of the composer’s Third Symphony — you’ve heard it in a commercial or a movie — but tracks like the off-kilter “Lusty” and “Cottonwool,” or “Zero” (where the beats drop out entirely, replaced by morose strings), are where the duo’s hearts lie.

Phil Freeman

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