Some splendid photos of the Levenshulme Bicycle Orchestra album gig @ The Greenroom taken by Jonathan Purcell. Glad to say we all look demented in everyone. Full set here.
First load of Nine Doors reviews have rolled in too:
“a Faust-like mixture of ritualised musical theatre and collective improvisation.. a scrapyard gamelan conjuring a post-industrial- even apocalyptic North of England… stumbling rhythms that echo some of the trash-kitsch of Swordfishtrombone-era Tom Waits.”
The Wire
“In essence, The LBO are about the very physical creation of music as an art concept, as opposed to being a couple of blokes chewing out a tune using a Mac and Pro-Tools.
As the name suggests you’ll typically find a sculptured bicycle being beaten and bowed alongside bits of sheet metal, bobbins, anything that goes ‘clack!’ and battered drums. Someone plays an actual instrument somewhere and at sometime. Let’s not forget the howling wails and poetic, yet menacing vocals. As the loops are purely organic, the rhythm can often get interrupted, but at times they make this whole thing sound as interesting as Eno / Byrnes “Bush Of Ghosts”, as if taken as a field recording on the Raleigh production line. Whilst 9 tracks are listed, I think the Orchestra live up to their name – this is one long piece culminating in a difficult but disturbingly mesmerising, inside out version of what sounds like The Doors.”
www.manchestermusic.co.uk
“Nine doors is an album that offers an insight into the bizarre, the nature of happiness, the profane, insanity and the downright weird all with a strange beauty and a sense of humour.”
www.blankmediacollective.org
“Their music reminds me of The Brave Little Toaster, but older and angrier and probably drunk. Whiling away his older years at the scrap yard. The reason for this is… LBO are no ordinary band. As you can guess from the title, they use bikes to make music with, amongst other ordinary household items. Their recently released album Nine Doors, is like Jazz on Prozac, played in an abandoned factory using instruments in the way that Blue Peter used fairy liquid bottles. On both occasions the result is unexpected, strangely enjoyable and definitely imaginative. It’s not the kind of thing you can play in the background and ignore whilst reading the latest Marian Keyes, but it will get you thinking about the nature of happiness, society, insanity and Marlon Brando. And for those who don’t give a shit about all that – you can enjoy it for the weirdness.”
www.futurelegendmusic.wordpress.com
David Birchall 