Lazy Salon
Halo Hand b/w DAM
Lazy Salon, self-released

Sometimes a promo email grabs me immediately with a short description. In the case of Lazy Salon, all it took was "the stonier side of Yo La Tengo" to reel me in. And dammit, this new two-track, eighteen-minute release by Sean Byrne (ex-Twin Atlas, Mazarin, Azusa Plane, Photon Band, Lenola, BC Camplight) sounds exactly like the stonier side of YLT. Maybe a bit more layered and reverb-drenched, but definitely in the YLT lounge room, kicking back. (He's called himself Lazy Salon, just to drive the point home.) This is a very good thing. Oh wait, there's more from Sean: "new directions in layered hypnotic pop jammers". Dammit, this guy is good. Not only does he create awesome music, he can succinctly describe it in order to really draw people in. (Well, me at least.)

'Halo Hand' starts off as though you've just walked in on Ira, Georgia and James rehearsing 'I Heard You Looking'. It sounds like one of those staircase melody illusion things, as if the music is constantly ascending, spiralling upwards into the clouds. 'DAM' pulls off the same trick, but with a sleight-of-hand down-tempo intro before we're into prime YLT territory again, percussive details flitting around as distorted guitar leads shoot off like fireworks. Real head-out-the-car-window-while-summer-driving stuff. Beatific.

In addition to these two fantastic new songs, there are three more on the Lazy Salon website from last year, just sitting there for free download. (Hint: download them too, they're great.) Sometimes this music-via-the-internet thing is just too easy: someone living in New Jersey cranks out superb instrumental jams and uploads them to the internet; someone living in Melbourne hears about said instrumental jams via email, downloads them and blisses out. You know what to do.

Copyright © 2015 Tim Clarke