We're off to see the wizards....

ALL LAU-ED UP AND READY TO ROLL

In less than three hours from now we'll be on a train to that there London and on our way to our first Lau gig of the year (there's another booked for November).  I've written before of my passion for this band and that hasn't changed.

The new album, The Bell That Never Rang, arrived a few weeks ago and was even more exciting, challenging, strange, enthralling than Race The Loser had been.  There were tracks of great immediacy, which swept you up on first listen, simple melodies that 'caught' straight away, but often with lyrics that wanted to be heard again for understanding to seep through.

And there were pieces that felt almost alien to the ears on first hearing, but repayed over many replays, giving up their complexity and structure and depth.  The seventeen minute title track in particular.

And now to see how those studio sounds will translate on to the live stage, how the trio will create these complicated soundscapes.  A process sure to involve a considerable amount of electronic layering.  And, maybe, the presence of the Elysian Quartet.

Whatever the means, I'm excited to see how it's done, hear the result, be swept along with the force of nature that is Lau.  It helps that the gig is in one of our all time favourite venues, the amazing Union Chapel in Islington.  Roll on 8pm....