Laundrette - Weird Place to Hide

by Benjamin Howarth

published: 4 / 9 / 2003

Label: Suiteside
Format: CD

"Delightful" arty guitar rock from refreshingly unhip Italian group back with third album on Bologna's Suiteside label

Review

The drums sound polite, not too loud. The guitars are plucked, a sharp jangly sound, no distortion. The bass sits just below the two and busies itself with some gentle, floaty runs. The vocalists both sound dreamy, not completely sure of themselves. Then the band kicks the pace up before letting it slide down again. It can sound dull from a distance, yet the closer you listen the more you feel compelled to listen closer still. Laundrette are an Italian group, and they are not the future of rock and roll. They are not trying to be hip, they don’t sound like Gang Of Four, they don’t sound like Television. They take the classic trio of Pavement, the Pixies and Slint and work a new angle into that arty, melodic, quirky sound. There are occasional nods to the work of Kyuss also, in the downtuned riffs and well worked grooves, but the sound as a whole is never anything less than polite. Every note on this record sounds like the result of some careful plan. All 8 songs are structured, formed – or at least that is how its appears – to pull maximum emotional whollop out of the barest of sounds. This is music to play on headphones especially. The Suiteside label hasn’t put out a record yet this year that merits anything less than a perfect review. 'Weird Place To Hide', it is a delightful record to lose yourself in.