LATCHO DROM, SELF-RELEASED
Latcho Drom are a three-piece indie-rock/post-hardcore band from Edmonton. While they’ve been active since 2011, despite a couple of releases with the “Everyone’s a Stupid Dickbag” single and Paper Trails 7”, they’ve been relatively quiet, opting for a much more sedate album cycle than some of their peers. And with their debut full-length, we finally get to see the band develop a lot of the ideas that they might not have had the opportunity to express previously. Latcho Drom opens with the five-minute “Ubu the King,” a Slint-meets-Sonic-Youth epic that manages to work in some very interesting guitar playing and really helps elevate the song beyond modest college alt-rockism. Other tracks on the album are equally compelling, taking influences from artists as diverse as Circle Takes the Square, Polvo and even Corb Lund at times. While the end result is decidedly far more unified to listen to than one would expect, Latcho Drom is a jarring ride that exists in spite of itself. It confuses as much as it challenges. Yet despite its constant thrashing about it never manages to lose sight of its aggressively pop core, making for an extremely compelling listen and a vibrant addition to a local music scene.
By Aaron J. Marko